Riding On
by Azallea
Summary: The story continues a year after the end of the story with Eli and Auden done with their first year of college together.
1. Arriving in Colby

"Aud?" I called into my apartment. After our first year at college together we decided to spend the summer in Colby. She was packing the moment I even mentioned the idea. After waiting about thirty seconds of not getting a response I decided to take matters into my own hands and find her for myself.

After searching the kitchen the living room and the bathroom I came upon the closed bedroom door. I knocked lightly and got no answer. I opened the door lightly and poked my head in. She was sleeping on my bed.

I couldn't help but to smile. She was so cute when she slept. She looked so peaceful and young, so unlike how she attempted to act at all other moments. I walked slowly over to the bed so I didn't make any noise that would wake her up and stroked her cheek gently. Her face lifted up to my hand and I pulled away fearful that she would wake up.

Just then I realized how hungry I was since I hadn't eaten anything since 6 in the morning and Auden had less than I did. So I decided I would try my best to make a memorable meal for our first night back.

With a quick kiss on the forehead I left Auden sleeping to do my best to find some food. It wasn't until I reached the completely bare cupboards that I realized I haven't set foot in this house in months so there wouldn't be any food to eat in the first place.

After a short trip to the grocery store I was back in the kitchen watching a pot of spaghetti cook thinking about the first time I had seen Auden. Or I should say nearly ran over. I was so busy in my thoughts that I didn't even hear her come out of the bedroom.

"Morning," she said sleepily wrapping her arms around me from behind and resting her head on my back. I put my hands on top of hers.

"Morning? It's nearly 7:30," I said laughing a little. She shrugged and wrapped her arms around me even tighter. I turned around and took her in my arms kissing the top of her head. I rocked back and forth and she buried her face into my chest. We stood like this for God knows how long but it wasn't long because the next thing I hear was Auden.

"You know that pasta of yours should be done by now," she said peeking over my shoulder. I snickered.

"You hungry?" I asked taking the finished spaghetti out of the pot and into a bowl.

"Starving," she replied. She took out two plates and got a fork and knife out for each of us and set them onto the table. A few minutes later both of us were busy eating slurping the slightly over-cooked food.

I couldn't help but noticing how beautiful she was. I sat there studying her; taking in the how long her eyelashes were and how she ate her food so neatly. How her hair flowed down perfectly even though she just spent the last few hours sleeping. She looked up at me?

"What are you looking at?" She started getting conscientious and looked down to see if she had something on her shirt.

"You, silly," I couldn't help but grinning like an idiot.

"Me?" she started blushing. She was so cute when she blushed.

"Yes. You," I replied simply, still grinning.

"Why?" she stared at me like this was the most ridiculous concept she had ever heard of. How could she be so ignorant to how beautiful she was?

"Because…," I spoke quieter. She would think it was stupid if I actually told her why.

"Eli?" she asked. I could tell she was growing more concerned by the second.

"You're just," I paused a moment and took a deep breath, "You're really beautiful." I let it all out with one breath. I held my breath and looked down. She'll think I've gone crazy now. I held my breath and looked at her. She was blushing and looking down, too. I smirked at my stupidity. Didn't girls love to hear that type of stuff?

Looking at both of our empty plates I proceeded to stand up and walk over to her. She looked up at me blushing even more.

"Why are you blushing so much?" I pulled her out of her seat and poked her nose.

"I'm not that pretty," she said shaking her head. I stood there dumb-founded.

"Of course you are. You're one of the most beautiful people I have ever been fortunate enough to meet," She smiled and didn't press further on the subject. On that note I looked at her for no more than a second and picked her up bridal style.

"E-_li!_" she started squirming around in a poor attempt to get down.

"Au-_den!_" I said mimicking her tone. She stopped squirming and pouted.

"Eli, put me down," she protested.

"Don't think I can do that, love," I said smirking. She rolled her eyes and snuggled into my chest. "That's more like it," I said and started carrying her toward the bedroom a few feet away.

I sat down on the bed and positioned her to sit in my lap. She leaned down and kissed me gently. It was slow and sweet but eventually it got faster and more passionate. She started pushing against me so I laid down on the bed and wrapped my arms around her waist and moving up and down her back. She pulled back and kissed my nose.

"Guess what" she said excitedly. This was the last thing I had ever expected her to say at a point in time like this.

"What?" I asked slowly, unsure what to expect at this point.

"I love you," she said plainly smiling down at me. I grinned and ran my fingers through her hair.

"I love you, too," I said slowly, trying to remember every possible detail of this moment. After a few minutes I was positioned on top of her kissing her as much as I could. Her fingers were entwined in my hair and my hand was going up and down her leg while the other was locked firmly around her waist. This was going to be the best summer ever.

I need reviews if I'm gunna write a chapter two. Any comments or constructive criticism are welcome.


	2. Good Morning

The following morning when I woke up something didn't feel right. The bed was emptier than it was when I fell asleep. After looking around a minute I sat up. No Auden. Did she leave? She couldn't have left this early. I ran a hand through my hair and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand; 9:47.

Just then Auden appeared at the doorway in one of my old T-shirts that was way too big for her drinking a cup of coffee.

"Morning sleepy-head," she said smirking. I grinned at her. "Breakfast is almost ready so I suggest you get up soon," she said after a short pause.

"Breakfast?" I asked pulling back the comforter and putting my feet on the floor. I stretched my hands high above my head.

"Well if you're in charge of dinner I figured I could take care of breakfast," she replied taking another sip of coffee.

I stood up, walked over to her and kissed the top of her head. "What time did you wake up?" I asked.

"About half an hour ago," she said quietly and leaned against me. Wrapping one of my arms around her shoulder I took her cup of coffee with my free hand. She scoffed and pouted at me, obviously faking.

"Fine," I handed her back the coffee cup and wandered to kitchen to get my own. After pouring my own cup of coffee, Auden went back to the stove where she was cooking eggs and bacon. I took the liberty of grabbing cups and plates and putting them on the small table. Auden and I each grabbed for the refrigerator door handle at the same time. She smirked and released the handle and went to go fill our plates with food instead.

"So what do you want to do today?" I asked her pouring some of the orange juice I grabbed into both of our glasses. She shrugged at me and sat down.

"What do you want to do?" she replied. She picked up a fork and started eating some the eggs. Following her lead, I sat down and began eating as well.

"I asked first," I said with a mouth full of eggs. She rolled her eyes laughing at me. I grinned and looked out the window. It was a pretty nice day outside and there were barely any clouds in site.

"Well, I want to know more," she replied simply. It was my turn to roll my eyes and laugh at her.

"That's debatable," I replied picking up a piece of bacon. "Ladies first," I said pointing the piece of bacon at her.

"Can't we just go with it?" She asked clearly not going to answer the question any time soon.

"I suppose," I picked up my plate and put it in the sink and she followed shortly. At that moment I picked her up and carried her to the couch. I sat on the couch and she positioned herself to straddle my lap. I cupped her face in my hands and she entwined her fingers in my hair and smiled at me.

I kissed her forehead then both of her cheeks. She pulled back, looked back at me for a moment, and moved in to kiss me fully. I felt a sudden surge through my body, and kissed her more than I had in probably a month. I moved my hands down her back and down to her legs. One of my hands went up and down her leg while the other was around her waist pulling her closer if that was even possible at this point.

She pushed herself against me even more. And I was pushed into the couch until I couldn't physically sink in any more. Her hands moved down from my hair to my chest. She reached for my shirt as I reached for hers. Before any of us could get the other person's shirt more than two inches there was one loud knock on the door and it was slammed open.

Auden and I sprang off of each other and stood up fixing our shirts and hair trying to make it look as we weren't doing anything.

Maggie and Adam walked in no more than ten seconds later. "Good morning, neighbors!" he exclaimed loudly. Maggie just smirked at us.

Both of us just stood there slightly short of breath and stared at them. Maggie gave us both a weird look.

"Are we interrupting something?" she asked very slowly looking both of us up and down.

"No..no," I cleared my throat and saw Auden shake her head.

"What are you guys doing here?" Auden asked quietly after an awkward silence.

"We decided to follow your lead and come here, too. You know, get the gang back together," he said starting to smirk and me.

"Oh…," Auden crossed her arms on her chest.

"We're, um..going to be playing kickball tonight if you guys want to join us." She looked at us one more time before tugging on Adam's arm and leaving.

Auden mumbled something about getting a lock on the door and I nodded in agreement. We both went into the bedroom and grabbed some clothes from the suitcases that we brought.

"I get the shower first," I said quickly and ran to the door. Auden was right behind me but I got in first and locked the door. Auden banged on the door once and went away.

I took a shower quickly and exited the bathroom with a towel around my waist. Auden rolled her eyes at me and went into the bathroom to take a shower herself. After about a minute of standing there I realized I had left my clothes in the bathroom to get dressed. I looked at the suitcases and mine was already in the bottom of the pile under ten others that we had brought.

I walked slowly up to the bathroom door and knocked lightly. I heard the water on so Auden must've been in the shower.

"Yes?" she called.

"I, um, left my clothes in there," I pressed my head against the door to hear better.

"You mean those things in the corner by the sink?" she asked laughing.

"Yes, those," I sighed at my situation. Auden stopped laughing and it was quiet for a little bit. "Can I come get them?" I asked slowly. It was quiet for a probably all of twenty seconds but it felt like an hour.

"Yeah, sure," she said.

I opened the door slowly and spotted my clothes in the corner by the sink just like she said they were. I quickly walked over to the clothes keeping my eyes on them the whole time. I didn't want to make Auden feel uncomfortable. I picked up my clothes and turned to the door.

I couldn't help but look at the shower. I could see the outline of her figure through the curtain. I stared at her for probably a minute holding onto my clothes. She was washing her hair and wringing out some of the water.

"Eli?" she called out to me. She pulled back the curtain and looked at me. I could feel my face growing unbearably hot and I stood there opening and closing my mouth for something to say. She smirked at me and closed the curtain again.

This time I left and closed the door, getting dressed quickly and looking at the bathroom door every twenty seconds. I ran the towel over my head drying my hair.

After about five more minutes the water turned off and I left the bedroom. I turned on the t.v. and watched the news for about ten minutes before Auden came in. She was wearing black capris and a red V-neck shirt. I smiled at her and smiled at me. I stood up.

"Should we head down and look for some people?" I asked standing up and sliding into some shoes. She nodded and put on some shoes. I cleared my throat.

"Auden, about the shower-" I was interrupted by her putting a finger on my lips and kissing them sweetly. I smiled and kissed her forehead pushing back her still wet hair.

"Let's go then," she said smiling. I opened the door for her and we walked out hand in hand.

**Authors Note:**

**Hey guys! Thanks for the few review that I got for the last chapter. It clearly doesn't take much to make me happy Please leave more reviews and comments. I would love to hear what you guys have to think about the story. Might wait until I get some more reviews until I post the next chapter (which is already in my mind and ready to be written by the way :P ) Comments make me happy and want to write even more than I already want to do. **

**Azallea ^.^**


	3. Kickball

Several hours later I was sprinting to the Last Chance Grill as fast as I could. It was seven o' clock which means that they would be picking teams for kickball. And more importantly which one of those people got the privilege of being on second base, and I did not want to do that.

By the time I had gotten from sleeping on the couch to the grill it had been at least 15 minutes and by the smirk on Auden's face, I could tell that was not good news for me.

"About time you showed up!" cried Adam in fake annoyance.

"I was sleeping," I replied looking around running a hand through my hair.

"I bet a couple of waves will wake you up," said Maggie laughing.

"Besides," interrupted Leah, "You're girlfriend here will be playing second on the opposite team!" She snickered and nudged Auden. Auden mumbled something under her breath. The only reason she wasn't laughing is because she was going to be playing second base, too.

"Wait a minute, Auden's on my team!" I said scanning the 14 or so people in front of me.

"No can do," said Abe from behind. I spun on the spot and smiled at him, before realizing what he said and shook my head.

"Teams were decided while your royal highness was sleeping, my lord," Adam said bowing to me. I shoved him back a little, playfully.

"I told you to wake up earlier," Auden said pouting at me. I frowned and hugged her from behind. She didn't resist, but she wasn't too eager to be in my arms either. I didn't take it the wrong way because well, second base sucks.

"I'm sorry, Aud," I said softly into her hair. She leaned into me a little bit, while I heard Adam reminding everyone of our rules. She mumbled something I couldn't hear, so I kissed her neck gently and she seemed to warm up to me a bit. "Maybe it won't be too bad," I said trying to be optimistic.

"Yeah right…," she mumbled and got out of my arms to go grudgingly to second base. I sighed and muttered to myself quietly as I went to kick the ball.

Riding on!- - - -Riding on!

"Auden Penelope West!" I cried out at Auden who was literally rolling in the sand holding her side she was laughing so hard.

"What the hell was that for?" I cried out kicking through the water to try to get to her. Since her clothes were still wet from playing second base they were starting to get covered in sand. I however, was soaked to the skin in water because Auden kicked what will probably go down in history as one of the longest distance a ball can go due to her kicking and the sudden wind. It had gone out probably twenty feet into the water and I had to go out to get in while it was going out further still because of the current.

By the time I had gotten to the shore Auden's laughter had only gotten even louder. I grumbled and stomped over to her. She sat up and crab-walked backwards a few feet, but not fast enough for me not to catch up with her.

I have to admit, I was royally pissed. I know Auden was mad that she had to play second base, but to be honest she really didn't get that wet or was even on the base for that long because we got out so many times.

I towered over her, glaring at her a bit. She bit her lip nervously and looked up at me.

"You want to tell me what that was about, Auden?" I asked trying to keep a cool and even tone.

"Relax, Eli. It was just a joke," she trailed off at the end a bit and continued biting her lip.

"I had to swim out in freezing water for no reason because you purposely kicked the ball as hard as you could even though your team has a five point lead," I said trying to keep an even tone and continued staring at her intensely. She looked down refusing to meet my eyes and whispered something.

"Hmm?" I said tilting my head to one side and crossing my arms. I admit if I had been watching it instead of being soaked through I would have found it funny too.

"I'm sorry…," she mumbled quietly still looking down at the sand in front of her. I leaned down to her level and hooked a finger under her chin. She looked remorseful but I could still see the gleam of amusement in her eyes.

I smirked and stroked her cheek and kissed her. It wasn't anything intense but it was still something for sure. I wrapped my arms around her, but she pulled away slightly.

"You're all wet," she said looking down at my shirt.

"Now whose fault is that?" I grabbed her again and pulled he close and started walking toward the water again.

"Eli! No. Please!" she cried once she realized what I was attempting to do. She made a poor attempt of escaping by squirming all over the place and trying to push herself off of me.

All of a sudden we were both in the water again, even though it was only a couple of inches where we were.

"Eli!" she exclaimed at me and looked down at herself.

"Yes, love?" I said stretching myself out since I was already wet. She smirked and practically jumped on top of me. I coughed as she positioned herself on top of me.

"Comfy?" I asked laughing a bit.

"Yes, actually," she said matter-of-factly.

"Can we do this back at the apartment because I'm pretty sure I'm laying on some dead fish," I said after a short silence.

"I suppose," she said fake annoyed. I pushed her off me and she sprinted away so I couldn't pull her in the water again. I snickered and followed her in pursuit.

I couldn't help but notice the way all of her clothes clung to her skin and outlined her figure perfectly. Since she started walking toward the house and she was a few feet ahead, I stared at her in the faint glow of street lamps and porch lights.

When we eventually reached the apartment Auden went to the kitchen sink to wring out her hair. I went to the door and used the newly equipped lock that we got earlier this afternoon. When I turned around she was staring at me with a gleam in her eye that I hadn't seen in her before.

Whether it was telepathy or something we both practically sprinted across the living room to meet each other. I wrapped my arms around her waist and she wrapped her arms around my neck as we kissed each other passionately. The kiss got deeper and deeper as we slowly but surely worked our way into the bedroom.

Eventually we stopped when the back of Auden's knees hit the bed. I looked her directly and she smiled at me and pulled me in for another kiss.

**Author's Note Time!**

**Okay. So along with comments I have been getting a fair amount of people putting me on favorites or story alerts or whatever. Anywho! As flattered as I am that you guys would ever think about putting me on your favorites, could you please leave some sort of comment? I just want to know what people think of it or if they didn't like something about it so I can make the story even better. Even ideas for a future chapter are welcome. Now I have a special offer for you valid through 7/29/11. **

**10 comments: I post the next chapter (which is already written) right away instead of waiting my standard 3-4 week thing. **

**I know I'm pushing it but here it is**

**20 comments: I post one chapter every Friday for 5 weeks. **

**Based off of comments you want me to continue but I want to know what people really think of it. I love all of you who take the time to read my stories!**

**Azallea 3**


	4. Not so secret anymore

Auden and I toppled back onto the bed, me making sure not to crush her. Auden giggled (which she seems to do more and more often now) and smiled up at me.

"Enjoying yourself?" I asked, smirking to myself.

"Well what if I am?" she asked, tilting her head to the side a bit.

"Then I would say I am, too," I replied and kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes as I leaned in and kept them closed as I pulled back out. I decided to lean in and kissed both her cheeks. After pulling away and looking at her for no more than two seconds I leaned down for a third time and kissed her full on the lips.

I could feel her smile as I did this and she kissed me back. I smiled to myself. We've done more kissing in the past few days than we had for half the year we had in college.

Auden was busy with her studies and I was, too. But Auden had all advanced classes and took at least three more than I did. Not to mention her work ethic made her do nothing but eat, sleep, and study. Half the time when I saw her she was busy typing away on her computer or tired as ever.

When I did see her she was generally too tired to anything fun. We went out a couple of times but it was nothing like it is here. Half the time I saw her she was half asleep and usually ended up falling asleep in my arms. Although she hadn't slept much before the added pressure of college had taken its toll on her.

Now that we were back in Colby everything was perfect. She had done great on her exams so all the pressure was off from that. She was slowly but surely catching up on her sleep and I was sure that by the end of summer we would be back to staying up late at night and getting up like we normally did last summer.

Some people might say it was boring just sitting around all day and kissing each other. I'm not one of those people. I love Auden to death and I would kiss her forever if I could. Every time I saw her the same butterflies were in my stomach since the moment I started dating her.

Now that I started thinking about it more and more I realized that I sort of neglected her while we were in college. Well we both did it to each other. We saw each other maybe once a week which apparently were enough for both of us. The times we saw each other were short and wonderful all at the same time but I missed seeing her every day.

Some of my friends said I should get a new girlfriend who was less interested in her studies and more interested in fun things like going to the parties on campus.

I've regretted it ever since but I did go to a party with another girl. I think her name started with a C but I don't even remember I was so drunk. I don't remember what we did that night but she was furious when I told her about Auden and that I didn't want to be with her. She slapped me and stormed off.

I was surprised when she didn't run off and tell Auden but I was thankful, none the less. But every time I saw Auden faithfully at my side it made me feel even guiltier than before.

I know she was focused on her studies but I missed being able to go out. I missed being able to kiss someone and tell them I loved them. I missed having that secure feeling that I was loved and nothing could change that. I missed being spoiled by that person and being able to spoil them back.

All the time I was with that other C girl I was trying to achieve that same feeling within a couple of hours. As hard as I tried by buying her drinks and winning her some stuff from the arcade and even kissing her in the low light of the bar, I felt nothing but extreme pain.

Just now a huge pang of guilt overwhelmed me and I felt like I had to say something. I would say anything at all to keep the truth from coming out into the open. Auden would leave me for sure if she knew about that and I couldn't bear even the thought of losing her.

"Auden," I said breaking away from the kiss. She looked up at me a bit surprised but still sincere to listen to what I was going to say. "You know I love you more than anything right?" She beamed up at me.

"Well I do now," she propped herself up onto her elbows and looked directly into my eyes and the guilt practically over flowed.

"Auden!" I said, or should I say practically yelled, suddenly. She looked at me shocked. She sat up and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Eli, what's wrong?" she said in a panicky voice. She was really worried I could tell. She was practically panting and not just from our excessive kissing.

I reached out and stroked her cheek with my hand gently. She watched me carefully, eying me suspiciously. I cupped her face in my hand and looked at her. She looked so sincere. Her eyes were shining with curiosity while they tried to figure out what was making me so upset. I couldn't tell her. Not now at least.

I leaned into her and kissed her. She pushed away at first still confused as to what was going on. I kept pulling her in around her waist despite her efforts. Eventually she stopped and accepted the kisses gratefully and returned the favor back to me.

Riding on! -Riding on!

We fell asleep a while after with her in my arms securely. When I woke up in the middle of the night she wasn't there. I looked around the bedroom and couldn't find her either. I sat up and felt my pulse rise quickly. I threw back the blanket that was over me and ran out the door.

I felt a huge surge of relief when I saw Auden in the living room, drinking what looked to be apple juice. She was standing at the far end of the room looking out the window.

"What are you doing up?" I asked relieved to see her but confused about why she got up. She had fallen into what the rest of the general public would call a 'regular sleeping pattern' but it was 3 a.m. and she was there; just standing.

"Couldn't sleep," she said almost dismissively. I was starting to get both annoyed and worried.

"You were sleeping just fine three hours ago," I replied, walking over to her slowly. She shrugged and took a sip of her drink.

"Aud?" I was starting to get worried now.

"What was wrong earlier?" she asked firmly and turned to look at me. I sighed in exhaustion.

"Nothing," I said, my voice cracking a bit. She raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Auden, please..," I stammered practically begging her not to make me do this. I may have cheated on her, but I wouldn't lie to her. I would never dream of it.

"Just tell me what's going on!" she fumed.

"I-I can't. Auden please! You don't want to know..," I said. I could feel my eyes filling with tears. I couldn't do this. I'm a man, I wouldn't cry, at least not in front of her.

"You're scaring me Eli! And God knows you've probably lied to me to!" she was starting to tear up, too. I couldn't handle this. I walked up to and put a hand on her shoulder that was quickly shoved off by her forceful hand.

"Auden please," I pleaded with her, "listen to me." She stared at me incredulously.

"I have been listening Eli! I always have and I always will! You know that! And you're just standing here just…," she stormed off to the bedroom and came out moments later with her purse and started heading towards the door.

"Auden! No!" I yelled and reached for her arms and grabbed her wrist tightly. "You don't understand!"

"Then help me to," she looked at me longingly. There were tears streaming down her face.

"I can't," I sighed and held onto her wrist even tighter.

"Why not?" she said quietly. Her lip was trembling and her eyes were filling with even more tears and I could feel the lump in my throat growing in size.

"Because..you'll be mad at me." I was losing it.

"You don't know that until you tell me and until you do, I'm leaving!" she then yanked her arm out of my grip and walked toward the door.

"Auden wait!" I yelled exasperated. She didn't even pause or look back. "I'll tell you!" She turned back and looked at me. Well…here goes nothing

**Authors Note Time!**

**As my sister would say: 'uh oh skettios!'. Weren't expecting that now were you? I don't want my story to be lost in the great abyss of love tales so I am attempting to make this one interesting. There are a lot more dramatic things than a couple of cheaters in later chapters I can assure you. Just you wait. The ride has just begun! **

**Azallea**


	5. Phone calls

I shook my head and tried to get my thoughts strait. How on earth are you supposed to tell the girl you love to death you cheated on her in the past? Auden stood at the doorway, panting with tears streaming down her face.

"Look," I said this all very slowly. "When we were in college one time in spring, I went out with this other girl…" As I said this her eyes widened and she began to cry even more. I moved toward her but she shrank back and I stood still.

"I don't know what I was thinking Auden. I-I just was going through a hard time. I don't know! But we were hardly seeing each other or hardly speaking to each other and I just was under a lot of pressure and I just did it without even thinking and the whole time I was with her was just a jumbled mess and all I kept thinking about was you and how I should leave but I got drunk and I don't know what happened but she was furious and won't talk to me. I don't care but it's just really messed up and I just feel so bad and whenever you're there it just makes it worse and I don't know what to do. I'm sorry…" This all came out in a huge jumbled run on sentence in record talking speed that I don't even know if she caught every word. She just stood there like a deer in headlights staring at me in disbelief.

What did I do? Idiot! I should have just told her that something happened with my family and it was bothering me. She'll never forgive me for this. She'll hate me and I'll lose her forever just like Abe. All this was going through my head in a hot jumbled mess. I was thinking more now than I had in all my college days combined.

She stared at me for God knows how long then turned and left.

"Auden," I called out quietly to her as she left. She was gone.

Riding on! ~~~~~Riding on!

Auden's P.O.V.

How? How could he possibly do that to me? He just went out with another girl? I could kill him! But I can't do that…I love him. But he cheated on me. I can't love him now. I can't trust him. All this was going through my head at once while I walked at record pace to my dad's house.

I know we weren't talking and all but that doesn't give him the right to just go out with some other girl. I bet he only went out with her because she was prettier than me. Don't think like that, Auden. You sound like a jealous bitch.

When I eventually ran in the house I found Heidi in the kitchen staring at me in disbelief. There must have been a million things going through her head, too but I didn't care. She eyed me up and down and put down her mug of coffee. I don't know why she was up but she immediately came up to me and hugged me. I don't know what was wrong with me but I hugged her back and collapsed into her arms, crying hysterically.

Eli's P.O.V.

I didn't sleep at all the entire night. All I did was drink my coffee and sit staring at the wall. I ran out the door to try to stop her from leaving but she was gone by the time I got there. I ran outside and tried to find her but it was too dark to see much of anything. After about five minutes of standing out there calling her name I went back inside.

I tried calling her phone even though I doubted she would answer. I needed to know where she was. I needed to know that she was safe. To hell if she hated me, I just needed to make sure she was okay. I would take care of the rest some other time.

If I called her mom she would probably scream at me and the same with her dad. I tried all her friends that I knew the numbers for and none of them seemed to have seen her since the kickball game. I would go to her parent's places in the morning. Maybe that would give me some time to clear my head and give her some time too cool off, too.

Auden's P.O.V.

I woke up early in the morning. I only slept for a couple of hours in the same bed that I had a year ago. Heidi and my dad have been too busy to do anything about it being here so they just left it. I could hear Heidi play with Isby downstairs. She was starting to walk now so they had to child-proof the house.

I got up and went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked terrible. My eyes were red and puffy and had bags on them. I was pale and my hair was mussed up. I sighed and gathered my hair in a pony tail and went to go sit on my bed again. Maybe I could just stay up here for the day. It's not like Eli will want to see me. He'll just go find some other girl.

I got up and grabbed my phone in the hoped of calling Maggie or someone to talk to. What I saw was 26 missed calls and 22 voice mails and 31 text messages. All of them were from Eli. As much as I didn't want to admit I really wanted to see him again. I wanted him to tell me that it was no big deal and he loved me. I know he said it the night before but I wanted to be able to believe him.

I picked up the phone and listened to some of the messages. They all said the same thing: that he was sorry and he loved me and he wanted me to come back or tell him where I was so he knew I was safe. I wanted to believe him but I just didn't .

I read some of the text messages and they said the same thing as the voice mails. I sighed to myself and laid back on the bed thinking to myself. My phone went off again. It was Eli. I clicked the red button and threw my phone on the floor.

Several dings and rings later I got up and stomped over to the phone ready to give Eli a couple of choice words. When I picked up the phone and read the caller I.D. I smiled. It was Eric.

"Hello!" I answered.

**Authors note time!**

**Okay I know this one seems kind of short, but it's the same number of words as some of my others. I just needed to set things up for the next chapter. Comments are still needed and sort of needed. ^.^ Anywho. I want to know what your guys' thoughts are about the past two chapters. **

**Love ya! XO**


	6. Make ups and break ups

Still in Auden's P.O.V.

"Hello?" I called into the phone.

"Hey," said the familiar voice on the other end of the line.

"What's up?" I said quietly. Why would he call me now?

"Just calling to see if you're all right," he sighed into the other line.

"I'm fine," I said shakily. I heard my own voice crack and it sounded faked.

"Auden?" he called into the phone. He was clearly concerned and knew I was lying.

"It's just..Eli," I said quickly.

"Ah, your boyfriend," he said. I could hear the slight disappointment in his voice. Eric and I were friends, close friends. We occasionally got a little flirty, but that always happens with friends at some point. It wasn't anything serious.

I knew Eli didn't like Eric. In fact, he frequently pointed it out. At one point he even demanded that I didn't see him again. I pointed out that I had classes with him so it would be kind of hard and he stormed out. I felt bad but at the same time I didn't. We were friends but Eli was being beyond jealous at that point.

"We're just having," I paused, "problems."

"You want to talk?" he asked. Just then I heard Heidi calling me downstairs in an urgent voice. I bit my lip and cursed my luck.

"I'll call you back later, okay?" I asked quickly and waited for a reply before I hung up.

"Okay..," Eric said confused but concerned.

I hurried downstairs thinking that something was wrong with Isby or something but instead found Isby contently playing with her toys in the living room. Heidi was by the door standing with her arms crossed. At the door was a disheveled Eli. He straightened up and some of the strain went out of his eyes when he saw me there.

"Auden," he heaved a sigh of relief. I stayed quiet. I was both happy to see that he cared and concerned that he looked so mussed up but at the same time mad that he bothered to show up only hours after it happened.

Heidi glanced between us, and then studied me for a moment. She left the room and gathered Isby in her arms and went outside leaving me and Eli alone. We stood just staring at each other for I don't know how long.

A sudden white hot rage boiled up inside me and I ran to the door and slammed it in Eli's face. He didn't seem surprised that I would do this. Instead he called my name out quietly and put his head against the door. He started mumbling words I couldn't hear and I put my ear to the door trying to listen.

I banged on the door and he jumped back in surprise.

"Auden, please! I'm sorry!" he pleaded with me and I could have sworn I heard his voice shaking followed by a quiet sniffle. He couldn't be crying. Not my Eli. I sighed and cursed myself. I wanted to leave the door but I just couldn't. I opened the door and looked at him.

His hair was messed up he still had the same shirt on that looked even dirtier than before. He had bags under his eyes and they were red. His lip was quivering but he wasn't crying, I knew he couldn't be. He stared at me with his mouth gaping open.

"I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely. Just seeing him like that practically broke my heart. I didn't want to be like one of those girls that would go crawling back to their boyfriends no matter what. But he really did look sorry.

I ran up to him and hugged him. He rocked me back and forth whispering 'I'm sorry' over and over. I felt a couple of tears sliding down my face, too. How could I have been so stupid? I let hate blind my judgement of Eli.

Don't get me wrong, I was still mad that he would even think about doing something like that but I acted too rashly.

"I'm sorry, Eli," I said quietly in his ear. He pulled back and looked at me confused.

"What?" he said even more confused.

"I just..," I stuttered a bit. "I acted to rashly. I should've listened to you or trusted you and I didn't." He smiles and stoked my cheek.

"Auden, none of this is your fault." I sighed and decided not to press him on it. At least not until later when we were more at ease.

"Let's go back to the apartment, shall we?" I asked.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," he smirked.

I went upstairs and Heidi came into my room.

"That was the fastest break up and make up I have ever seen," she laughed and made some comment about young love. I rolled my eyes and laughed with her. When leaving I kissed her cheek and thanked her.

"Well then I guess I should clean out this room since there is no chance of you coming back," she mused. I nodded and ran downstairs. Eli picked me up and carried me all the way to the apartment with me riding on his back.

I teased him with small kisses on his neck the whole way there. He smirked and made a couple of grunting noises in response to them.

**Authors note time: sit down kiddies. **

**Okay, I know the past few chapters have been agonizing short but I am setting up for some big things. I promise the next few will be alooot longer. Like..my longest one actually. Yes I have it written. **

**Alright, down to business. I know a bunch of you guys have me on story alert for this thing and I still want to hear what you have to say in the comments. And I know who you are because I keep every email from this site. So I will find you. O.O Haha! Kidding. But I still love comments. **

**Will probably be writing a lot soon. Love ya! XO**


	7. Classes and kisses

Eli's P.O.V.

The whole way back to the apartment I carried Auden on my back like I had done for countless younger children. She was just kidding when she practically tackled me to the ground in a hug from behind when she came back to get her stuff. Still, I decided it would be fun and carried her to the apartment.

What was actually a ten minute walk felt like hours. Auden leaned down and started kissing my neck. She knew I liked it when she did that and she continued to do it. She moved agonizing slow from my neck up to my ear. A small grunt escaped my lips when she did this.

I could feel her lips twist into a smile. She was enjoying this almost as much as I was. When she started nibbling on my ear I nearly lost all my control to drop her turn around and kiss her for hours in the middle of the street. Auden could tell I was trying hard not to drop her so she stopped.

A almost told her to start again after a couple seconds but we turned onto our street. Auden smiled and rested her chin on my shoulder. I turned my head to kiss her cheek; she blushed. I laughed a bit.

"Why do you always blush when I do that?" I asked. She blushed almost every time I kissed her cheek. She never did when I kissed her anywhere else. She shrugged.

"I dunno," she replied shortly.

"You don't like it?" I asked in a fake hurt voice.

"You know I love it," she blushed even more at the confession.

"Good to know," I said as I kissed her cheek again. She smacked my chest lightly.

"Stop it," she pouted.

"Aw, how come?" I pouted back at her.

"Because I'm asking nicely," she replied and climbed off my back as I opened the door to the apartment. I rolled my eyes at this comment and slipped down onto the couch. Auden went to put her bag into our room and came back.

She walked toward the recliner in the corner of the room. Stopping her by grabbing her wrist, I pulled her back gently to lap. I didn't want her to sit on the other side of the room. It would be much better if she sat here with me. I wanted her to stay close to me.

Before we knew it school would be starting again. Even though it was only the end of June, summer always ends quickly, especially if you are having fun. When it all ended we would be back to our normal routine of never speaking to each other and have to go through this whole thing again.

Deciding to take advantage of the moment I grabbed her from behind the neck and pulled her in to kiss her. She responded immediately by kissing me back. We pushed ourselves up against each other until it was no longer humanly possible. But we still tried even after that. Her hands were slowly running their way up my chest and I was tempted to do the same.

Instead I ran my hands up her legs first then moved up to her waist. She eventually moved up and stopped at the top of my chest. Mine moved up her back and entwined them in Auden's hair.

When we eventually pulled apart we were both short of breath.

"I love you Auden," I breathed. She beamed at me.

"I love you, too," she whispered back to me.

We both just sat there staring at each other. I stroked Auden's cheek gently and kissed the top of her head.

"Eli?" she whispered.

"Yes, Aud?" I said in the same quiet tone we had been using.

"What's going to happen when we go back to school?" She said the words I had been thinking about for the past day now. When we go back to school we will be complete strangers again

"I don't know," I answered truthfully.

"I don't want to go through this again," she looked down and bit her lip. I hooked a finger under her chin and opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. "I missed you so much, Eli," she whispered again.

I stroked her hair once she laid her head on my chest. To be honest I missed her just as much as she missed me.

"I missed you, too." I kissed the top of her head. Just seeing Auden like this made me feel so helpless. She was always so strong determined and stubborn. But at the same time she was intelligent, fun-loving, and caring. That's what I loved about her. Now she was just so weak and defenseless. I pulled her closer.

"I don't want to lose you again, Eli," she said. I looked down at her and saw a couple of tears in her eyes threatening to spill over. I wiped one of them.

"Please don't cry, Auden. I can't take it," I pleaded with her. I couldn't bear to see her sad ever. She tried to be brave and keep her tears at bay, but she wasn't doing a very good job.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do this again Eli. I can't," she exclaimed quietly. I thought about it for a moment. Would we be able to survive through another mercilessly slow school years without seeing each other? We barely got through this one and we were already thinking about the next one.

"Auden, we'll think of something. We won't do this again," I said hugging her even closer, still. I meant it but I wasn't sure if we would be able to pull it off. She nodded slowly. "I promise," I whispered.

"Okay," she said seeming only half convinced that I was telling her the truth. To be honest I wasn't sure either.

I was sure of one thing. I was not going back to that damn school if I wasn't able to see her at least a couple times a week for sure. If it meant convincing Auden to drop a couple of classes (which was highly unlikely) I would try to. Maybe just going to a different school would help.

Riding On! Riding On!

Several hours I came back to the apartment to find Auden clicking and typing away at a computer. She was concentrating on the screen so much it seemed that her eyes might fall out if she stared at for much longer.

"What are you doin', Aud?" I asked opening the fridge to get a water. I got no answer and returned to the living room to find her still typing away. I took a sip of water and sat down on the couch. "Aud?" I called again.

I got a small grunt in response. She clicked a few more times. I got up to see what she was doing but the look I got once I did told me I was suppose to stay right where I was. I sat down slowly.

"What are you doing, Auden?" I asked again, getting more curious by the second.

"You'll see soon," she said quickly and started typing again. Sitting there baffled, she looked up at me. "You know I take a lot of classes," she started to explain.

"You take more than a lot of classes Aud," I replied in a teasing tone. She rolled her eyes.

"Well I'm trying to figure out a way I can see you more so I'm signing up for a class," she replied.

"Wait a minute," I exclaimed putting down my water. "You're trying to get fewer classes by signing up for more classes?" She shook her head at me like I was completely oblivious to the whole idea of it all.

"I'm taking classes online, Eli," she muttered under her breath. I was still slightly confused.

"Now?"

"Yes, now," she stopped typing and looked at me. "Why?" I stared at her a moment.

"I thought the point of us coming here was to get away from school, Aud," I replied, hearing the disappointment of my own voice.

"I know but if I spread out the classes then we can see each other more in the school year," she said looking at me sympathetically.

"Well yes, but…," I sighed defeated.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, now you'll be on the computer all day with your classes when we were supposed to be having fun."

"They're easy classes. I'll still be able to have fun with you," she stood up and walked away from the computer to come sit next to me. I wrapped an arm around her.

"That's not the point," I said disgruntled.

"I thought you would be happier," she said biting her lip. I could tell she thought the best intentions when she did this but I would still miss seeing her as much as I did when she wasn't busy typing away on a computer.

"Promise you'll still make time for me?" I asked after a very long pause in conversation. She nodded eager to see that I had taken to the idea.

"If I take them now that's two or three hours a day during school I don't have to be in class," she said trying to cheer me up a bit. I'll admit it made me smile to think that she would have a lot more free time on her hands.

I smiled and pulled her in my lap again. She went willingly without comments. I kissed her neck, somewhat curious to what her response would be. I never really kissed Auden on her neck. She did it to me on a select few times but that generally ended in us making out for hours on end. I had done it with a few of my other girlfriends but Auden was definitely different.

I felt her smile as she relaxed into me even more. I kissed the nape of her neck and moved down slowly down the rest of her neck. I paused at random places focusing on little parts more than most people do.

I nipped her neck slightly and nibbled down on a small piece of skin gently. She made a small but satisfied sigh. I smirked and moved down her neck to her collarbone. She arched her neck back to allow me further access. She kissed my cheek a few times while I continued to kiss her neck. Some might call it weird to do all this at once but I can tell you that it was amazing.

I pulled away a little bit and caressed the places where I had just finished kissing. She smiled and looked at me.

"Enjoying yourself?" I muttered quietly, pressing my forehead against her. She nodded.

"Should I not be?" she asked in the same low tone. I smirked.

"Up to you," I replied and kissed her cheek.

"Then I enjoy it immensely," she smiled and kissed my nose. I felt my face growing hot and some butterflies in my stomach.

"Good. You're supposed to," I grunted and pulled he closer and nuzzled her neck.

"Are you?" she asked turning her head back a bit.

"Mhm," I muttered. I buried my face in her hair, taking in the scent and how soft it felt. I said it probably a thousand times but I told her I loved her again even though it was muffled by her hair. She smiled and told me she loved me too.

**Author's Note:**

**Okay so, I cut this chapter a little slow because I wanted to save it for the next chapter. I probably won't be writing as much as I have been the past two weeks or so. I love all the comments that I've been getting from you guys. I will go back to my every two or three weeks to update. I won't abandon my readers completely. **

**If any of you have any idea's or such feel free to message me because I'm sort of running out. I have one big idea but I might have a mob of angry fans after me ;) Anywho, special thanks to my regular commenter (love10134) cause she helps me get inspired to write more. **

**XO, Azallea. **


	8. Surprise!

I opened my eyes to what appeared to be early morning. After a few moments I realized that I had fallen asleep on the couch during the movie me and Auden had watched last night. I wasn't too worried because I'm pretty sure she fell asleep before me and the fact that she was still wrapped in my arms. The television was still on some news station and I looked around to find the time.

I felt Auden stretch a bit and stopped moving. How was I supposed to get up without waking her up? I didn't have to wait much to find out.

"Eli?" she muttered quietly.

"Yes, Aud?" I replied quietly.

"Good, so you're up," she said at a normal leveled voice and sat up. I just looked at her confused.

"You were up this whole time?" I asked sitting up myself.

"Nah. Only for like forty minutes," she said running a hand through her hair.

"Why didn't you wake me up then?" I said wrapping my arms around her again.

"I didn't want to, silly," she smirked and leaned into me.

"Why's that?"

"Cause you were sleeping." She rolled her eyes a bit at this statement.

"I would've gotten up," I said yawning a bit. She shrugged.

"I was fine and you were asleep. There was no need." She stretched her legs out and turned to face me. Just then I heard my stomach growling fiercely. She smiled.

"I suppose we should probably get up," I muttered.

"Yeah," she stood up. "I suppose we should." I smiled at her. "I'll make something to eat, okay?"

"Okay." I stood up and kissed her forehead and went off to get dressed. Some twenty minutes I came back to the kitchen so find a couple waffles sitting on the table and Auden eating some of them.

"Hungry?" I laughed a bit.

"Well you stole all the popcorn last night." I laughed a bit more and sat next to her and took some for myself.

"We need more food," she said after a while.

"How much do we have?" I said with a mouth full of waffles.

"Enough for lunch and half a dinner," she sighed quietly.

"Mmm. We can go to the store later," I decided.

"No, I can go," she said almost immediately. I raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed a bit. "You can stay here," she said quietly.

"You don't want me to go?" I asked pushing my plate forward.

"I want you to," she responded.

"Auden?" I said a bit annoyed.

"I want it to be a surprise, Eli," she said practically begging with her eyes for me not to ask anything.

"A surprise for what?" I asked. I know I hadn't forgotten any big anniversaries or anything and it was a Wednesday at the end of June. What could possibly be to celebrate or have a surprise for?

"I'm just," she paused, "happy." She sighed at me and shook her head as though I wouldn't be able to understand.

"You're," I paused trying to comprehend this, "happy?" She nodded. "So I can't come with you because you're happy?" She heaved a sigh.

"I want to do something special. Don't ask why because I don't know why. I just want to," she looked at me pouting a bit.

I smirked and ruffled her hair as she tried to swat my hand away.

"Fine," I said pulling my hand back. She stood up, kissed the top of my head, and I heard her close the door to the bathroom. I shook my head in disbelief. She was never out of surprises.

After Auden left I was at a loss for things I could possibly do. After watching t.v. for half an hour I got bored and moved to the window to see if she was on her way back. Last night while picking up a couple of movies from Auden's dad's house he gave us his car for a couple of days since the three of them would be out of town and would be using a rental.

After aimlessly walking around the house for another half hour I was starting to get worried. The grocery store was only a couple of minutes away and it doesn't take that long to buy groceries for only two people. I was going to call her but I couldn't seem to find my cell phone anywhere.

Another twenty minutes later and I heard a buzzing from inside the couch. After a minute of searching I found the phone and found an unfamiliar number calling me. I grumbled and threw the phone back on the couch. If I called Auden she would probably get upset with me since it was suppose to be a surprise.

I heard a knock on the door. I ran to it expecting it to be Auden with arms full of groceries. Instead I opened the door to two police officers. I just stared at them unsure what to expect. They stared at me too. And then it hit me.

"Auden?" I said in a panicky voice. The taller of the two men nodded.

"Would you be, Eli?" he asked.

"Yes, where is she," I asked quickly.

"Calm down, son." The shorter one with the bald head said. "She should be fine."

"Where is she!" I practically screamed at them. I knew I should have gone with her. Scenarios were playing in my head as to what could have possibly happened to her.

The tall one glared at the bald one. "Listen, please." I stopped fidgeting so much and went back to looking at them breathing quickly. "Someone hit her while she was pulling into a parking lot," I could feel my pulse quicken and I let out a loud breath of air and started running a hand through my hair. This can't be happening again.

"But she's okay? Right?" I wanted to shake the both of them until their heads fell off if they didn't tell me exactly where she was and what happened. They both looked at each other.

"She should be fine as long as the surgery goes well," the shorter one said after a long pause where I just got even more panicky.

"Where is she!" I demanded again. This time I know I was screaming at them and I advanced on them when they didn't answer right away. They both backed away putting their hands up defensively.

"She asked for you while they were taking her to the hospital. We have her phone so we tried to call you." I cursed myself for not answering the phone. "Would you like us to explain what happened?" the shorter one said.

"No, I want to go the hospital where she is," I said still panicking. I picked up my phone and wallet and followed them out to the police car outside the apartments.

I can't believe this is happening again…

**Author's Note:**

**I was seriously considering stopping the story here but I decided I'll wait for some comments, negative or positive, before deciding what to do with it. I think I might continue but like I said, I'm not sure. **

**Can you guys all comment 'cause it's my birthday on Monday ^.^ And no one likes Monday birthdays..**

**Thank you all who take the comment to read and review. **


	9. That terrible night

I slowly climbed into the back of the police car. After a few minutes of trying to extract further information from them I reluctantly agreed to go with them to the hospital. They explained to me that they were just told that Auden was in the crash with two other vehicles and currently in critical condition and they came to me since I was the first number on her cell phone.

I thought about calling her mom and dad but I was too busy thinking about all of the possible things that could've happened to Auden that I hadn't even bothered to pick up my phone on the way out.

The car was very quiet, almost too quiet. The clouds outside were a dark gray making the entire area seem like it were night or very close to it despite it being only half past noon. The officers sitting in the front of the car kept on glancing at me with a weird look in their eyes. I tapped my fingers on the door handle impatiently. I looked outside the window to see a small bar with the lights flickering that it was open, and I thought of Abe.

_Flashback-_

"_Dude you're totally wasted," I laughed watching as Abe attempted to walk from the bathroom to our table. I was grateful that we looked old enough to be able to get into the bar with the fake IDs he had made for us. _

"_I'm perfectly fine, shmart one..," he drawled out collapsing on our table. _

"_Well, maybe not wasted. But definitely drunk," I smirked to myself, for once glad that I had only touched one beer in the four hours that we'd been here compared to his five or six. He rolled his eyes at me and leaned his head back against the booth. "You need to sleep it off; you'll be fine in a couple of hours." _

"_Dude, we can't goo noow" he said stupidly, eyeing a bunch of girls that walked into the bar. I laughed and shook my head watching as he made a poor attempt to make his way to the girls._

_End Flashback_

I sighed to myself, willing myself to try to forget about that night but it just wouldn't happen. All I thought about is all the things that could've happened differently if we'd left the place earlier

_Continued Flashback-_

"_C'mon Abe. We have to go," I said tugging him away from the girls about an hour later. It was dark and I was getting bored of watching him make a fool out of himself. _

"_Five more minutes, dude," he muttered. Some of his drunken stupor was starting to fade away but he was still too drunk to drive. _

"_You said that an hour ago. Let's go," I said pulling him a bit harder by his arm. He gave a coy smile to the girls sitting at the table and they smiled back at him. _

_Eventually we got to the parking lot where I after a couple minutes of searching and keeping Abe from tripping we found the car. I opened the passenger seat and helped him get in. He dozed off by the time I had gotten into my own side. _

_I sighed to myself. Even though I had a good time it's not how I imagined my first bar experience to be like. _

_End Flashback_

The tapping of rain soon accompanied my fingers and I looked outside. We were waiting on a four way intersection with barely any cars passing through. Memories of that night began to buzz through my head.

_Continuation of Flashback-_

_It started to rain as we drove down the quiet street. Most people were in bed by now since it was probably close to two a.m. But since it was a Friday night cars still passed by us occasionally as we pulled up to the intersection. I glanced over at Abe who was quietly staring out his window on verge of passing out. _

_The red light seemed to be taking longer than it usually did. I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a set of bright lights coming towards us faster than they should be. I gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter as it approached. It was far enough away that it would stop, but I saw it swerving. _

_My eyes widened and I looked at the red light for half a second before speeding ahead a bit so we wouldn't get hit by the oncoming drunk. I glanced up at the red light again as we were halfway through the intersection. Even though it was happening so fast it felt like we were in slow motion. _

_I saw the bright lights of someone else's headlight along with a loud beeping coming up on our right side. I didn't feel much when it happened. I felt like I was floating for a bit and since neither of us bothered to put our seatbelts on since our house was only ten minutes away I guess you could say that we were. _

_I felt the car rolling and both of us bouncing around in it. The noise of it was unbearable loud. Before I knew it, it was over. I felt the pain of a couple of glass shards in my stomach and a couple of other cuts here or there. I grunted in pain as I tried to sit up, but decided that it wasn't worth it._

_I felt some blood beneath me and attempted to look back at the car. The car that hit us was still in the middle of the street with the car that was behind us wedged into it. It was then that I started to panic. _

_My senses were slowly coming back to me and I heard a sort of panting noise coming from behind me. Abe was lying there, his eyes clouded with fear, all signs of being even close to drunk were gone. I could tell that both of his legs were broken by the way that they just lay there crooked. _

_He was covered in blood the same as me. I made an attempt to at least army crawl a little closer to him but a sharp pain shot through my body and I cried out in agony. He looked to his side at me. _

"_Eli?" he called, panicking. I could feel my world going black _

"_I'm right here, Abe," I grunted, feeling another shot of pain. _

"_You okay?" he called. I couldn't help but feeling so pitiful that he didn't even talk about his own pain. When I didn't answer he called out again. _

"_What happened to us?" I could feel my world going black as I heard the sirens starting up a couple miles away. _

"_I'm not sure," I answered honestly. I looked up at his crooked body laying there, covered in blood and called out his name. He didn't answer. I tried even harder to crawl over to him despite the pain. I probably moved a couple of inches before I couldn't see anything. Everything went black as the rain started to pour down harder on us._

_End flashback_

We eventually pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. I was numb to any feeling, except for the cold I felt deep within me. I stared at the back of the seat, unmoving.

I realized that the one of the officers had opened my door and was waiting for me to get out of the car. I slowly stepped out, instantly feeling the rain come down on me. We were close to the door since we were in cop car, but the rain was coming down fast and hard.

I looked up at the windows of some of the hospital rooms, remembering the clean smell and white walls.

_Flashback Continued:_

_I woke up to a faint beeping sound. The white walls in the room were covered in health posters and some pain measuring thing where you point to the faces 1-10. I glanced over to find my mom sleeping in a hospital chair next to the bed. The pain that I felt before was no longer there. In fact, I couldn't feel much of anything. It took me a while to piece together why I was sitting in a hospital bed but once I did, I sat strait up. _

_My sudden movement startled my mom and she looked the happiest she ever had to have seen me. She called the nurse who came in and started to check something with the drugs I was given. I stared ahead blankly but I could hear a happy voice of my mother and the soothing tone of the nurse. _

"_Where's Abe?" I asked suddenly, when all the elements of what I thought had happened got into my head. The nurse looked between me and my mom for a moment. My mom just gave me a blank face. It was the nurse that told me quietly, looking down at her white shoes. _

"_Abe's dead.." _

_End of Flashback_

I walked into the waiting room and stood there dumbly for a moment. I noticed one of the desk attendants hang up their phone and I walked up to her. She had curly red hair and looked at me clearly concerned that I was soaked through.

"Do you need help, my boy?" She signaled for one of the other front desk people to get help for me but I held up my hand and she stopped.

"Auden.." I breathed. It was all that I could manage. She tilted her head like she knew I would be here.

"You're Eli?" I nodded and she didn't say anything afterwards. I felt the rage slowly build up and I kicked the desk as hard as I could causing anyone who had been in the waiting room to look up at the commotion.

"Where is she?" I screamed in her face. She retreated a couple of steps and looked at me surprised. I sighed, not wanting her to be scared and repeated in a cool tone.

"Where is she?"

**Authors Note Time!**

**Sorry, I'm not ready to tell you what happened to Auden yet. Please comment. I worked unbelievably hard to try to get this chapter right and I think it's one of my better ones. **

**The comments received from the previous chapter made me reconsider stopping and I will probably continue this story for a while yet because it seems I actually do have a mini fan-base if you will. **

**Thank you to all of you who take the time to read my work and even more thanks to those who offer me feedback that helps me improve. **

**Azallea**


	10. Hosptials

"Where is she?" I repeated for the second time to the red headed nurse. I knew people all around the waiting room were still staring at me as though I was crazy, and maybe I was. But I needed to know where Auden was and if she was okay.

The nurse looked at me for a long time, as though she was studying me. I probably looked a mess seeing as I was just out in pouring rain and was shaking like mad at the thought that I might not be able to see Au- no. The nurse will tell you she's okay.

I exhaled loudly, losing my patience before the nurse spoke.

"She's in room 324, on the fourth floor. But she'll be going into surgery very soon so I wouldn't go up there if I were you." She said this all in one breath very slowly.

I could have hugged her but I didn't. This was the first REAL piece of information I had gotten about Auden since the police came to my door telling me that she had been in some sort of accident. I crossed the waiting room quickly to the elevator, noticing that everyone was still staring at me.

One little girl in particular watching me reminded me of Auden. She had the same eyes. I could tell she was sick by the paleness of her face but she looked genuinely concered about what was going on with me. I forced a smile to her as I jabbed the button a couple of times on the elevator, probably hoping that if I pushed it a couple more times it would come faster.

When the doors finally swung open with a ding, I bounded in and quickly pressed the four on the other side of the door. Looking back before the door closed I could see the trail of water I left when walking over here and for the first time realized that I was actually cold.

After sighing impatiently I rubbed my hands together and waited for the elevator to reach its destination. The familiar surge filled my body when the elevator stopped. I remember loving that feeling when I was younger and waiting in anticipation for the sudden stop. But now it made me sick. It reminded me of the feeling I got when I kissed Auden. It was the swift movement making my heart beat faster and faster and the anticipation building until she pulled away; leaving me wanting more.

The doors of the elevator opened and I stumbled out dizzily. I glanced around at the white walls and got that sick feeling in the bottom of your stomach when you really don't want to be somewhere. The smell of the completely sanitary rooms reminded of me of the days in here after what happened to Abe.

I was only here for four days but it felt like years had passed by when I had finally gotten out. Of course I had only partially grasped the idea that my best friend in the world was gone and there was nothing I could do about it but sulk. It was why I hadn't attended his funeral when they had it. The worst part about it was the looks you got from everyone.

People you barely even knew or didn't know at all looked at you like you were some lost, helpless puppy. They always spoke gentler when they talked to you as though you would break and kept the topic of conversation on strictly happy or pointless things. I wanted them to leave me alone. And eventually they did.

After I found the sign that pointed to the room numbers I searched for the number pointing to Auden, the one that would lead me to her. 'She's in 324' the little red headed nurse repeated in my head over and over.

The arrow pointed left so I went that direction too. _330. _Auden where are you? _329._ You idiot she's a couple rooms down. _328.___But she could be hurt. _327.___The nurse said she was fine. _326. _She just told you what room she was in. _325_. But she would have told me if something was wrong. _324. _

The room looked like any others in the hospital. It was the same crisp clear white with that clean smell hanging around. The sun shone brightly in the room as the curtains were pulled back. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't hear anything. I just looked at her.

She lay on the smooth white sheets of the hospital bed. Several cables and tubes were hooked up to her body and making a lot of beeping noises. There were several cuts up and down her arms and in particular and gash at the top of her head where someone had clearly cut her hair to clean and stitch it up.

She looked so small, as if she was drowning in the cables all around her and the oversized hospital gown that had probably been put on her. I don't know how long I stood there.

I just looked at her hungrily, and I hadn't eaten in days. She was there. She was laying here right in front of me. I took a slow step forward. Looking at her expectantly I took another step forward until I reached the foot of the bed. It was different then when I saw Abe laying in hospital.

_Flashback_

"_Sweetie, it's okay." My mother had reached out to put a comforting hand on my shoulder. _

"_No it's not!" I yelled as loud as I could manage with the growing lump in my throat. I pushed back the covers on my and began to shakily get up. The nurse looked at me wide eyed then shook her head like she was waking up from a bad dream. She went around the bed slowly while I attempted to steady myself. I ripped the couple of cords out of my wrist and the nurse hurried and tried to push me back down on the bed. She succeeded of course but she turned around to get some of the other nurses and I heard her shout for someone to get some sort of drug that I had heard makes you pass out. While she was turned away I sat up and shakily walked over to the end of the room. How long had I been asleep? _

_I stumbled helplessly along the railing on the wall and I could hear footsteps behind me telling me to stop. The next room had a clipboard pinned to it. I noticed that it had Abe's name on it so I quickly looked in the room expected him to be hooked up to some cords like I had been. _

_I felt a small pair of hands that probably belonged to the nurse who had been in my room tugging me back followed by a stronger pair of hands that belonged to a male doctor. No matter how hard the pulled me the image I saw was stained into my memory forever. _

_I couldn't see him but he was there. The white sheet was pulled up over his head. There were no cords hooked up to him. No beeping. No nothing. I heard a shouting off in the distance that probably belonged to myself and I began to struggle against the hands that were pulling me back with little affect. _

_I felt a fuzzy feeling in my head, the same feeling I got after the crash. And my world went black _

_(End flashback)_

"Auden," I whispered quietly, shaking my head and returning to reality. Reaching out to stroke her cheek as gently as I could, fearing she would break if I did anything, I sighed quietly.

Someone cleared their throat behind me and I swerved around. It was a tall woman in a doctor's coat. She looked official holding a clipboard in her hand and her lips pulled tight and glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"Are you family?" she asked coming closer and taking a look at something on the machine and scribbling some things down on the clipboard.

"Sort of?" I mumbled quietly. She raised an eyebrow at me but said nothing as she continued to write some things down on her clipboard. "Does it matter?" I asked after an awkward silence.

"Usually, only family are permitted to see that patience while in intensive care. We don't want a hundred people coming in at once."

"She wants me here." My voice cracked and the nurse peered at me up and down.

"Alright," she sighed quietly. "But she is going to surgery in less than a minte"

"Can't it wait?" I clutched the rail of the bed. My knuckles were growing white. The doctor looked over her glasses at me.

"She's in critical condition. She could die if we don't get the glass out of her now. We've wasted enough time getting her here and the few injuries that they took care of on the ambulance. She's been here long enough to get the drugs in her system now she needs to go." She talked to me as though I was a third grader who didn't know how to add fractions correctly. "Now." She said after an afterthought.

I continued to grip the bed rail tightly as two more doctors walked in and grabbed the bed as if to roll it out of the room. I looked at Auden. Auden. She was my reason for being alive right now. If it weren't for her I would still be moping around the town riding my bike not finishing my first year in college.

I said her name again even though it was only a quiet whisper. When they started rolling her out of the room I yelled it again louder. Once they were out of the room my adrenaline pumped up and I began to follow them despite the woman with the glasses putting a hand on my shoulder as if to stop me.

I yelled her name louder but the people taking her away from me didn't turn around and they just seemed to go faster. I started to run but there were hands on my pulling me back. They weren't strong but they stopped me for a little bit. There was another stronger pair of hands on me pulling me back and I heard several voices attempting to soothe me.

I somehow got put into one of the chairs in a much smaller waiting area near a much smaller desk, meant for maybe two people instead of ten. There were a couple nurses or doctors around me all trying to convince me calm down and take some deep breath but my vision was blurred and I couldn't hear any of the words they were saying.

I just kept screaming her name as though it could bring her back, and hoping that it would.

**Alrighty then! What'd you think? Am I being mean by making you wait so long? I think it's funny to read some of the furious comments about me wanting to post. Speaking of which, I will be posting a lot more now. I finally got back into the swing of things and I'm nearly done with an amazing serious (the mortal instruments) and I plan to make a fanfic about that along with several other books. **

**Any questions or comments about further stories, you can just pm. Cause I get all excited when the email says I got a private message. I will honestly talk with you guys for hours about what I'm writing. **

**Azallea**


	11. Sunrise

I sat up groggily. Slowly, I stood up, stretching my sore back and rubbing my eyes a bit. The hospital was very quiet. A couple of the nurses were still wandering around the area talking about various patients and who was going to take care of whom. I recognized the tall doctor with the glasses immediately. She was quite easy to spot with her height.

She looked up from her clipboard to peer at me, over her glasses of course. While attempting to find the words to ask her I noticed it was dark outside. Not dark like it was raining before. It was pitch black outside. The nurse followed my gaze and I swear I saw the corner of her mouth curl up.

"You've been asleep for quite some time." She went back to scribbling on her clipboard. My jaw hit the floor and I ran a hand through my hair. She seemed to notice this because she put a soothing hand on my shoulder. I brushed it off rather roughly.

"You just let me fall asleep while Auden's having a surgery done that could very well kill her if your damn doctors don't do it right! You didn't even bother to tell me anything that was happening?" I said coldly. She looked at me with round eyes and I heard a voice from behind me.

"Eli, Auden's fine." It was a low voice, and I swung around to see the familiar face of Auden's father. I just stared at him like I'd been doing with most other people, unable to find words to describe what I wanted to say.

"Auden..." I managed to spit out after an awkward silence.

"She's resting for now, but she'll be okay." He said all of this very quiet. I could see bags under his eyes and his hair was starting to gray a bit. He was looking at me as though I had done something wrong, and I knew he thought it was my fault that Auden had gotten in the car accident. "She should be in her room," he muttered quietly.

I quickly walked past him, ignoring the cold stare in his eyes. When I walked into the room I was immediately attacked with an embrace by Heidi.

"Are you alright?" she asked starting to rock back and forth a bit. I returned the hug weakly and muttered that I was fine. She took a step back and looked like she didn't believe me. But who would be fine after something like this happened?

Ignoring her, I looked to Auden. There were cords sticking up from her and she was obviously asleep. I couldn't help but feeling sick to my stomach. None of this would've happened if I had gone with her. Seeming to hear my thoughts, Heidi spoke up.

"It's not your fault, Eli." She had her arms crossed over her chest and was biting her lip. She looked like she had lost weight since the last time I saw her. Now that I think about it I hadn't seen or heard about any of Auden's parents since Christmas when we went to visit all of them.

"She'll be okay," Heidi spoke quietly. It seemed to me she was assuring herself of this rather than me.

I walked up to Auden slowly and stroked her cheek. She seemed so small jumbled up in all the cords around her. It was dead silent in the room except for the constant beeping of the heart monitor

"Why didn't you call us?" It was Auden's dad. Even though his voice was quiet it cut through the silence as though he were yelling.

"I didn't think a-"

"Damn right you didn't think!" This time he was shouting. '_about it'_…" I finished in my head. I turned around in shock. I had never seen him so angry before. His eyes were like black holes, his nostrils flaring, and fists bunched up to tight I thought they might stay like that forever.

"Robert," Heidi said quietly.

"Don't start!" He pointed his finger at her and she went immediately silent. He continued looking at her but pointed his finger at me. "It's his damn fault my daughter nearly died in car accident today and then he has the nerve to tell me he didn't think once about calling me!"

I noticed Isby for the first time, sitting in the corner quietly. She had gotten a lot bigger since that last time that I had seen her. She started to fuss and Heidi ran over to her.

That's when he advanced on me shoving his finger at my chest accusingly. "This is exactly why I didn't want her leaving with you. I KNEW she would do something stupid with you and you wouldn't care or do anything about it. But NO! She had to run off to be with her damn bike riding boyfriend who's barely passing college!"

"Now wait a minute!" I objected. I cared about Auden more than he did. He had the nerve to tell me that I didn't care when he had just run off before and left her with her mom.

"No, you wait! I've had just about enough of you taking my daughter away from me and I will not have her die just because of YOU!" His eyebrows creased in the center of his forehead. It was then that I felt the huge pang in my stomach of guilt. Auden wouldn't have even left the house in the first place if it hadn't been for me. He got that part right.

"Robert, maybe you should step outside," Heidi spoke up. She was bouncing Isby up and down on the side of her waist. She looked mad to but not at me. He turned on her about to spit some more hateful words when the nurse came in an interrupted him.

"Robert, since she is your daughter you will be happy to fill out the medical forms for her I presume?" It was the tall doctor with the glasses pushed up on her nose. There was an air about her voice that told me that she wasn't asking. He looked at her for a moment before leaving the room muttering angrily under his breath.

"I never told you. My name is Doctor Henderson. But you can call me Kim." She held out her hand for me to shake. I was too shocked by the 'conversation' I just had with Auden's dad to do much of anything.

Heidi left the room too after Isby began crying again. She threw me an encouraging look as she left.

"I'm sorry about that," I mumbled quietly.

"Don't worry about it. Worried parents tend to be the worst." She began checking some of the cords that Auden was plugged into. She looked somehow different when she was not hidden behind her clipboard. He eyes were gentler and she looked more like a mother than a strict librarian.

"Will she be okay?" I blurted out. She turned to look at me as though she was studying me. "Auden, I mean," I added after a while.

"Yes," she nodded. "Auden will be fine. Gave us quite a scare she did. Not too many people live after being through something like that. I guess she had a lucky day." I nodded slowly, feeling numb all over. The nurse tilted her head to look at me. "She should be up within a couple of hours. But she's going to have to stay here for a while. Two..maybe three weeks." She glanced back at Auden. I nodded again.

"Thank you," I managed to whisper after a long time. The doctor smiled and patted me on the shoulder as she walked out. I took a chair from the corner of the room and sat next to Auden looking at her.

I began thinking back, trying to think of my own family and if we were anything like what I had just seen. The only thing that came to mind was Auden.

Everything had changed since I saw her. She was one of the deepest girls I had ever met and had a certain spark about her that made her so loveable. That's what I missed the most while we were in college. I was used to seeing her every night, when I would take her out to see the sights in Colby.

When she was gone it felt as though my heart was being ripped out of my chest slowly and there was nothing I could do about it. It was like when I was watching her all that time she didn't even know I was there. She kept her windows open so I watched her from my own room knowing that she wouldn't want to me to disturb her. I watched her almost every night until she would turn off the computer, closed the window and go to bed.

This was the same feeling as that magnified by about ten. It was the same feeling of helplessness that I felt. I couldn't do anything to help her besides to sit and wait for things to work out for themselves. Only this time, she could've died.

Attempting to push these thoughts aside I thought about my actual school work, which of course brought me back to Auden. I'll admit I wouldn't have passed without those late midnight sessions of her tutoring to help me prepare for my finals. It was then that I realized how much I had missed her. Most of the year was a blur except for when I was with Auden. It was like my body went on auto-pilot when I was without her. It was with these thoughts that I dozed off.

Riding on! Riding on!

"Eli," a soft quiet voice called out to me. My eyes sprung open as I looked at Auden. And Auden, oh Auden, she was looking at me. I smiled and stood up taking her hand in mine.

"Auden." It was all I could say. Her name was repeating itself in my head over and over. She was alive. She was here. She was looking at me. She frowned a bit.

"You look like crap," she teased. I could tell it was strained. I looked down at myself. Dirty, crusted up clothes clung to my body. My hair was tussled and my eyes were red. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Is now really the time for jokes?" I was smiling at her and she was beaming at me, looking straight into my eyes.

"Would you prefer it if I complained about all these cords in my body?" she mused softly. She shifted uncomfortably keeping her eyes on me, still smiling. I can't recall ever seeing such a beautiful smile in my whole life. It brightened the whole room and my head was spinning.

"Auden Penelope West if you ever scare me like that again," I started up kissing the top of her head. She cupped my face in her hands. They were shaking a bit and I could tell she was weak, trying to be brave for me.

The sun was streaking through the window. The sky was in light pinks and bright orange igniting the sky with their flames. It was a beautiful sight and the best thing I have seen in my whole life. The light from the sky lit up the room beautifully, making Auden's hair look beautiful despite the fact that it was frizzier than I had ever seen it before.

She was looking out the window too, squeezing my hand tightly. I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her passionately. The amazing feeling surged through my body. She was kissing me back, probably using all of her energy to do so. It was for that reason that I pulled back.

"I love you Auden," I whispered. Auden, my beautiful, glorious Auden was in front of me. She smiled herself, that gorgeous smile of hers.

"I love you more," she teased and kissed my forehead with mustered strength and collapsed back onto the pillows.

My Auden. My beautiful, wonderful, loveable, glorious Auden was awake and with me.

**Authors note:**

**There my ravage little readers. Auden's okay. I can't believe you guys actually thought I would kill her off :( **

**I will admit this chapter was very hard for me to write because I am currently going through a very rough patch in my life. **

**Pretty pretty please comment and PM me. I'm running short on ideas and I would like to continue this serious for you guys. **

**Azallea 3**


	12. Author's Note

I apologize to all of those who thought this was an actual chapter. I just wished to send a message to some of my viewers. An Authors Note if you will.

It seems that some coward behind a computer decided to talk shit about my story. I understand that I said leave comments good or bad. But if you have something to say that's bad about my story. Explain what I should do better instead of being a jackass about it. The fact that it was an anonymous comment makes it even more hilarious that it took the time to comment.

To 'OhmyGawd' at least don't be a chicken and comment under your penname so I can talk to you. Your comment did make me realize something though, so I thank you. Not everyone is going to like my stories and I can handle that, just don't read or tell me what I could do to improve. It just shows how many people there are in the world that are just…hmm I can't think of a good word to describe them. If you got any words tell me.

I am considering ending my story here since the comment did leave a big blow to my self esteem about writing anything at all. So congrats, anonymous commenter, you have succeeded in making me feel like shit.

Anyways, I probably won't be posting for a while though because of that. I need to regain my composure before I start writing up again.

I will probably delete the comment after a couple days so people don't just see it and don't read it because they think it's awful. And if it is awful (which I don't know) just please explain what you think is wrong with it.

To help explain this I have examples:

Bad Example: Worst fanfiction ever. Lolol I skipped all the chapters.

Good Example: Hey, I didn't really like this story too much because I didn't like the plot/your grammar was bad/the dialogue isn't that good/ect.

So once again thank you for making me feel like crap. Probably won't be on fanfiction for a while because of that. But I do have I think three new stories for when I come back.

If anyone wants to talk to me, please PM me. And I get emails and such from the website so anything you say (comments and the like) I'll get.

Thank you,

Azallea

P.S. My haters are my motivators


	13. Roadblocks

**First Dedication I've made goes to AlyssaStarr. She helped me a lot. **

The past two weeks had been painfully slow. According to the doctors, Auden's recovery was going exactly how they expected it to, if not that a little faster. But I continued to feel helpless, watched her struggle to walk around her room for five minutes or trying to sit up to eat food like the doctor said that she should.

She told me that she was fine, and that she was getting better. But I saw the look in her eyes when she fell to the ground and had to have nurses help her up, or when she needed help eating. She had that indebtedness thing. She couldn't stand to have anyone help her, at least not with something as simple as eating.

Physical therapy was hard for her since she had to do it twice a day. They wanted to make sure that she would be able to use all of her limbs to their full ability. She was always tired at night even though she tried to talk to me.

It was mostly idle chat, nothing about the crash at all. None of us had bothered to even mention it since she woke up. I knew for me at least I didn't want to make her upset. She would look at me out of the corner of her eye sometimes with a guilty look in her eyes.

Her dad came to see her every day. Sometimes it was just for fifteen minutes, and other days it would be for a couple of hours. But he still came every day, avoiding me of course. Sometimes Heidi would come with him. She would talk to me, though. Mostly about how I was doing and if I had gotten any sleep, and when the last time is I had gone home.

The hospital staff was more friendly than I remembered them being, but I hadn't been there in a long time so that was probably why. They would smile at me when I went to go get some coffee and would ask me how I was doing while I waited in the hallway for Auden to be done with some tests.

Doctor Henderson was nicer than I had imagined her to be. She insisted I call her Kim but I couldn't bring myself to call her by her first name. She would always chide me softly when I stayed at the hospital too long and remind me that I should go home and take a shower than come back. After staying in the hospital for the first four days strait she wouldn't let me back into Auden's room after I'd gone to the bathroom until I went home and showered.

After five minutes of arguing I had reluctantly agreed and went home for an hour. After taking a shower and changing clothes I realized that she was right about me needing to go home, at least for a while.

When I returned to the hospital I found a couple of pillows and a blanket where I usually slept in the chair next to Auden's bed. After that I had a feeling she had talked to Auden about me being at the hospital so much because she started insisting that I go home to sleep. At first I had resisted, telling her that I wanted to be with her through the night in case anything happened to her.

Eventually I did go home every night and I had been doing that for the past five nights or so. I left after Auden was asleep for at least an hour and got up extra early, got some coffee and went to see her. I was usually there an hour or two before she had gotten up, but I liked being the first thing that she saw when she got up.

She smiled up at me when she woke up. I would ask her how she slept and got the same generic response every time. Doctor Henderson told me that she should be able to leave the hospital in the next couple of days with the progress that she was making. Auden was the most pleased about this besides me of course. She hated hospitals and was looking forward to going home. Where was home?

Riding on! Riding on!

On this particular day I was looking out the window. The sun was just starting to come up as I sipped my coffee. It had definitely gotten warmer, since it was now the middle of July. During the fourth of July, Auden and I had watched some fireworks in this window. She snuggled against my chest; while we watched the colors fill the sky.

She eventually fell asleep on top of me since it was only a couple days after she woke up, still tired and weak. The nurses allowed her to take the cords off herself for that few hours while we talked. I don't remember what we were talking about by I remembered the calmness in her tone. It was the first time I had heard it in a while.

The number of people escalated greatly during that week and slowly went down, but still remained very high compared to the colder winter months. I leaned my head against the cool window, looking down at the passing cars, watching them try to make their way across the maze of a parking lot.

"Eli," a gruff voice said behind me. I turned to see Auden's dad standing there. He was getting worse with every visit. I could tell her hadn't shaved and the bags under his eyes got darker each time he came.

"Yes?" I set my coffee cup down on the table and followed his crooked finger. We ended up by the vending machine down the hall, tucked away in a small corner so that I couldn't see much of anyone after he stood in front of me.

"I've been meaning to talk to you for a while," he grunted.

"About?" I did my best not to sound annoyed, and polite as possible. I didn't want to ruin any chances of ruining that slim chance I had of having a good relationship with Auden's father.

"Auden." He continued on after I raised my eyebrows at him. "I think she should move in with me and Heidi while you go back to college?"

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"Well, she's just been through a hell of a lot and I think it would be easier if she just stayed here for a while." I could tell by his tone that this was not the truth. I looked past his shoulder at Doctor Henderson who was talking to a short plump woman with an amused look on her face.

"I'm sure we can stay here for a while, if that's what she wants," I muttered quietly after an awkward silence. I felt his gaze on me, while I continued to watch Doctor Henderson make wild hand motions as though she was telling a story of how she slay a dragon.

"I'm not sure you understand." I stood to face him. He was staring at me intently, almost glaring."

"I'm not sure I do either," I looked him strait in the eyes.

"I think you should leave Auden alone for a while." It was like a slap in the face. He said it so calmly like he was telling me that it was hot outside and I probably shouldn't wear a sweater. I just stared at him.

He was actually suggesting that I should no longer see Auden especially after everything that had just happened. I had to admit, I should've seen it coming. He was always glaring at me since the crash. He seemed fine with me before but after we left for college I could tell he was starting not to like me.

"I don't understand," I said slowly, eyes glancing towards Auden's room.

"I'm saying, I think you should leave Auden alone because it seems all you have done is caused her grief. And I will not tolerate it any longer"

"_I'm _causing her grief?" I could hear my voice rising. "You're the one that practically left her and her mother just to be with some other woman." His face was still stoic, I hadn't phased him whatsoever.

"And if you recall correctly, you would not have even met her if it had not been for me inviting her to spend the summer with us." I had to admit he was right about that much.

"And if you recall, it was her decision to come to college with me, not mine. In fact she was the one that asked me to come with her."

"Yes, you've admitted to manipulating my daughter," he stared me down with cold eyes.

"I love your daughter," I said. My voice had gone quiet. He didn't even looked like her cared at all. Not Auden in the least.

"So you show you're love by getting her into a car crash?"

"I wasn't the one who drove into her car!" I was shouting again, I felt Doctor Henderson's gaze rest on us. She was watching carefully, ready to come over if needed.

"You've taken my daughter away from me, made her misreble during the school year," I raised my eyebrows at this. "She called me crying about you and how you ignored her all year. And now you're going to treat her special all summer just so you can throw her away as soon as the school year starts. And now when she's trying to get you back she gets into a car crash and nearly dies. Face it; you're no good for her."

I stared at him, unsure of what to say. The sudden pang of guilt that I had been burying over the past two weeks came up full force and I felt like I would vomit.

"In fact, I think that it would be better if you stopped seeing her at all," he looked towards her room, "staring now."

I shook my head unsure what to say in response to this yet. I couldn't take it any longer, not from him. I shoved him against a vending machine, wiping that smug look off of his face. I leaned real close to him and spoke murderously.

"You," I stuttered out, "are and inconsiderate, heartless bastard." I backed away from him, but he remained pressed against the vending machine, glaring at me with hatred I had rarely seen before from anyone.

I stormed across the room to wait for Auden to wake up to talk to her. But when I got to the room there was someone in there already. He was tall, blonde and pretty skinny for the most part. He had his hands in his jean pockets, wearing a blue shirt to match.

Auden was awake now and I could tell that they were talking intently. He turned to look at me. His hair dangled right in front of his eyes, which were blue from what I could tell. Auden looked from me to him in rapid succession and I heard the beeping of her heart monitor speed up a bit.

The boy with the blonde hair gave me a weak smile and held out a hand for me to shake, only to pull it back awkwardly when I didn't respond.

"Who are you?" I asked him, not looking at Auden yet. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on where I had seen him before.

"Oh, um. Sorry. I'm Eric. You're Eli, right?" He glanced at Auden who was staring at me.

"Yes, I am." I turned to look at Auden and our eyes locked. She looked at me apologetically then glanced at who I now recognized to be Eric. I had seen him in a couple of Auden's classes from when I went to see her.

"I was just leaving," he muttered quietly, obviously not wanting to leave anytime soon but catching the look in Auden's eyes. "Call me okay?" she turned to ask Auden once he reached the door. She nodded, then looked down.

Auden's dad appeared at the door a few seconds later.

"Auden I need to talk to you now. Eli, leave." She looked at her father obviously surprised. I saw her jump at the same time I did when he yelled, "Now!"

**Authors Note:**

**Here you go guys, got the story going a bit more. Pretty please comment to make me happy? Hehe. As always I like to hear what you think. **

**Feel free to PM me about…anything. Hah. Love you. **

**Azallea**


	14. Spilled coffee

"I'm not leaving," I stammered after summoning up the courage to speak. I felt his eyes cool gaze on me although I was looking at Auden, who was looking at her father.

"You'll damn well do what I say," he growled taking a step towards me. Auden was staring wide eyed the both of us.

"Don't you dare tell me what I will and will not do," I said taking a step towards him as well.

"Eli, please," Auden begged quietly. I couldn't hear here, I could barely even see strait I was so infuriated.

"She's my daughter. If I tell you to do something that affects her you better do it!" He took another angry stomp towards me.

"Well it seems to me that you are one of the worst father's ever. You left her to be with some other woman, who you practically ignore. And you don't even pay attention to your new daughter, let alone take care of her! If anyone should be leaving it's you!" I was screaming and I could tell. To be honest, I was glad. I didn't care what he thought of me anymore, he had no right to tell me half the stuff he was saying.

He didn't speak at all. I had never seen anyone at all in my life look so ravage, like he was about to take a knife out and get me. He took another step towards me and pulled a clenched fist behind his head. I heard Auden scream as I shoved him backwards with strength and speed I didn't even know I didn't even know I possessed.

He fell back onto the ground quickly getting up; looking even angrier if that was possible. He charged toward me as I did the same thing towards me. I could hear Auden screaming my name as we collided, noting that it was me and not him.

I had played football a couple of times with Abe, and this was pretty much it. Him and I pushing against each other trying to knock the other one down, but there was a lot of kicks and punches added to the mix, along with some insults and swears.

I don't know how long we were scrambling over each other but I was suddenly yanked off by a large man wearing some scrubs and Auden's dad was being held back as well by two of them.

"You stay away from Auden," I spat at him, struggling against the nurse holding me back.

He struggled against the pair of nurses holding him away from me spewing out angry slurs of swears and insults. After a few minutes the nurses had left but Doctor Henderson came in and stood in front of Auden's father in the corner, fixing me with a gaze that told me if I tried anything, he wouldn't be the only one I'd be fighting.

Auden was staring at me wide eyed, with mouth gaping open. I looked at her helplessly. She would probably be mad at me for picking a fight with her dad but I did it for her, and I was sick of him telling me that I should stay away from her.

I walked slowly over to her, as Doctor Henderson pushed Auden's dad out of the room to talk with him. Expecting to get chastised I stayed quiet, with a pleading look in my eyes.

"Eli," she whispered quietly. "Maybe you should go." I looked up at her in surprise.

"What do you mean?" I took her hand in mine and she closed her fingers around mine.

"I need to talk to my dad, Eli." When I opened my mouth to say something she cut me off. "I need to know what he has to say. I know you mean best, but maybe you should spend the rest of the day at the apartment?"

"Auden-" I managed to spit out but she was shaking her head at me.

"Please," she whispered quietly, giving my hand a gentle squeeze

"I'll wait outside then," I tried to reason with her. "I'll stay quiet."

"You need sleep, rest, a halfway decent meal and a shower," she stroked my cheek gently.

"I'll be fine. I want to stay with you." I glanced out in the hallway spotting Auden's dad and gave him a cold stare.

"I want you to go. Take a day to yourself, for me?" She tilted her head to the side.

"What about your dad?" I muttered quietly.

"What about him?" she pulled her hand away from mine and glanced toward his direction.

"He wants me gone, you know that." She nodded slowly and I pulled back from her. "You want me to leave too!"

"No, Eli, never. I love you. You know that." She sat up and shifted towards me.

"Then tell me why you don't want me to stay!" I took a step back from her. I couldn't believe that she wanted me gone, after all of the things that just happened.

"I want you to stay! I do! But I just need to talk to my dad. You two don't exactly get along," she said with a slight air of annoyance.

"I told you I'll behave myself, whatever he does." I crossed my arms.

"It's not just him. You did shove him back when he came in here," she tilted her head watching me carefully.

"He told me to leave you! That I don't care about you and I don't deserve to have you with me," I tried not to sound angry with her but I ended up doing a terrible job.

"I know, and it was wrong. That's why I need to talk to him. Don't you understand that?" She stood up. This had gotten a lot easier now that over the past weeks the doctors had begun removing all the cords from her body.

I eyed her up and down. She had lost a lot of weight and looked very fragile even after the couple of weeks. She was getting a lot better at taking care of herself though I had to admit. The doctors began talking to me about the things I would have to do to help her if she were to come home with me. I was willing to do it of course since I knew she wanted to be home more than any of us.

"I can't leave you Auden, I can't. Not alone with him at least. He hates me and you know it" I walked up to her putting both hands firmly on her shoulders, steadying her a bit.

"He doesn't hate you," she whispered looking down.

"Yes he does. He has done everything to show it except for say the words out loud."

"That's why I need to talk to him." She looked up taking my face in bother of her hands which were very cold and shaky. "I can fix it."

"You can't fix him. He's not fixable." My tone raised and she winced a bit. "I'm sorry," I whispered quietly. She pulled back from me.

"I know you don't like him but he's still my dad no matter what you do." I nodded slowly.

"When do you want me back?" I reluctantly gave up.

"In the morning?" She visibly brightened up once she had seen that I finally agreed to this.

"First thing," I kissed the top of her head turning to leave. I passed Auden's dad sitting there keeping my head high just to annoy him. I saw him clench his fist so it worked.

Riding on! Riding On!

I spent the rest of the day pacing around the apartment distracting myself with various chores to do. The place was spotless by the time I was done and it was only 7 p.m. I headed out to the Last Chance Grill and ordered the usual thing I got.

I was glad that I didn't see anyone I could recognize and they didn't seem to recognize me.

When I got back to the apartment I quickly showered and flopped onto the bed, falling asleep instantly.

In the morning when I woke up it was incredibly bright outside. I jumped up looking at the clock and seeing that it was already noon, sprinted outside, getting dressed on the way to the car. I stuffed some spare shoes from the back seat on my feet before speeding on the way to the hospital, only stopping to pick up Auden's favorite coffee. \

I ran up to her room and practically dropped the coffee in my hand at the sight that I saw.

Auden was crying, well sobbing into Eric's chest. He had his arms wrapped around her and was whispering something into her ear that she was nodding to. I couldn't believe it. He had the nerve to come back her and she just let him.

I had never seen Auden that upset before. Why hadn't she called me? I was about to get my phone to see if she had but I realized that I had left it at my house. I took a step forward to go towards her but ended up slipping in the coffee I had dropped.

A couple of the nurses turned to look at me and I felt a hand wrap around my arm to help me up. It was Doctor Henderson, who was looking at Auden not me.

"You should go, Eli." She whispered this pushing me towards the door.

"I can't just leave her," I protested. "Not like that.

"Come back tomorrow, okay? Just go home, now. Please." She turned ordering someone to clean up the coffee I had spilled.

I turned back but she gave me a sharp look. I looked at Auden, who was still sobbing into Eric's chest. Ignoring the looks from Doctor Henderson I started towards Auden's room.

**Authors Note:**

**Okay, so I usually don't update this much in this short of a time period. I've just been feeling really bad lately so I figured I'd dump that into this. **

**I'll tell you what. Since I already have the next 3 chapters written, I will type them out and update if I get comments. It doesn't have to be long and extravagant (but if you want to go ahead) but I want to hear you're guys opinion. **

**So..I guess I'll hear from you guys in comments. PM if you want.**


	15. Final resting place

**Okay, I know, I know. My last chapter was a bit boring and didn't deserve too many comments. I had to set it up for this and please don't hate me forever because of this. If you guys really hate it I'll delete it and start over with the story line. But I worked really, really hard on this one so pretty please comment?**

I walked home from the funeral alone. It wasn't a particularly big funeral since he wasn't exactly the social kind of guy. His parents and a couple of people from his work came. In all, probably thirty to forty people came. Even Auden's mom came to pay her respects.

The whole time I sat awkwardly in the front, holding Auden's hand while she leaned into my shoulder trying to be brave, and not to cry at all. It didn't work to well, not much different from when I first saw her like this.

When I walked into her room at the hospital she practically sank into me like an old coat. At first I was relieved when she did this, but I saw the look in Eric's face. He shook his head at me when I smiled at first so I knew that something was up.

Doctor Henderson came in the room shortly after I did, giving me a look of disgust. I, still unsure of what happened, just gave her an apologetic glance. She asked Auden to come out of the room. When she pulled back from me I immediately knew this wasn't just some small thing.

Auden's eyes were swollen red, and she was sniffling pitifully. Her hands or I should say her whole entire body was shaking severely as she let go of me. I had to hold her upright by her shoulders to keep her from falling over.

"Eli," she managed to whisper to me before leaning into me. Doctor Henderson came over and started to rub her back.

"Perhaps we should wait then, Auden?" Doctor Henderson said quietly to her. But Auden shook her head. She looked up at me and I cupped her face in my hands.

"What happened?" I knew it was a stupid question but I was completely clueless at the time. Her eyes watered up again so I just pulled her against my chest as she regained her composure. She sniffled into my chest once more before pulling back to look at the doctor.

"Can we just go now?" Her shoulders were slumped over as she tagged along behind her. Both of them looked back at me as they left. Only one was eyes filled with sorrow and longing, while the other was filled with obvious anger.

I turned back to Eric who leaned himself against the wall. He was staring at me intently, studying me.

"What is it?" I asked. Seeing as he was the one holding her when I came in here he must've known what went on. Also I could tell by the look in his eyes as he stared me down that he knew more than I did.

"You're Eli?" The way he said it made me pissed off in more ways than one. For one, he knew I meant that I wanted to know why Auden was so upset. Just the way he said it, like he was disappointed, like he picked up a penny expecting it to be a quarter.

"Yes, and you're the kid who sat next to Auden in whatever class, she's in," I muttered in anguish.

"You're her boyfriend and you don't even know what classes she's taking in college?" He raised an eyebrow at my inquisitively.

"I know what classes she's in," I growled at him, clenching my fists.

"Then why don't you tell me," he said with arrogance. He had a smug grin on his face that reminded me of Auden's dad. My face was growing hot. I didn't remember what classes she was in. Too much had happened in the past couple of weeks that the upcoming semester was one of the least important things on my mind.

"Why don't you just tell me what the hell happened?" I had grown used to yelling. When people didn't give me information I just yelled at them right away. It got the information out a lot faster than me sitting and waiting for them to get to the point of what they were saying. The only person I cared about right now was Auden, and I knew she wasn't okay. And this little bastard knew what was wrong with her.

"Relax, Eli. I'm only playing." I must admit he did have a charm about him. He wasn't the most handsome person in the world so what he didn't have with looks he made up with the way he held himself high and always carried himself with dignity.

At school he got respect amongst his peers for being one of the best in his classes. I knew that much about him. Auden talked about going to him for some help when she was stuck on some homework some day. I've heard other people mention him like he was some sort of God. From what I saw, he was a decent looking guy who carried himself and knew how to talk.

"I'm sick of playing." I knew I sounded pitiful. It was almost the exact opposite of how he had sounded whenever he talked.

"Well, you should learn to live a little," he laughed a bit, but it wasn't at my expense. As much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn't. There was something about him that I just couldn't hate. I ran a hand through my messed up hair and spoke quickly.

"You want me to live a little! How can you expect me to be calm when Auden just got hit by a car, nearly died, and now just as she's expecting to get better and go home, I walk in and she looks like that?" My voice was becoming higher pitched as I spoke and by the end I was talking like some sort of dolphin.

"Okay, so that wasn't the best thing to say," he sounded genuinely disappointed. He sounded like he wanted to help me in some sort of way but I wasn't having any of it today.

"Damn right it wasn't! Can you just tell me what's going on, please?" I let my hands fall to my side and I just looked at him. I needed answers and I was exhausted from getting the bland responses or holding off of answers.

"Look Eli," he paused, eyeing me down. "I really shouldn't be the one to tell you. You should ask Auden."

"Well in case you haven't noticed she isn't here," I said in strained sarcasm.

"I don't want her to be upset," he sighed.

"I don't think she can get more upset than what I just saw." I pointed towards the direction that they walked out in.

"I've seen her worse," he muttered quietly, probably not expecting me to hear him. I'll admit I was shocked. If I hadn't seen her anywhere near this upset why should he have?

"Can you please just tell me what's going on?" I was begging and I knew it. He sighed, got up off the wall, and walked over to me.

"Auden's dad is dead." It wasn't until then that I knew how much one simple sentence could change everything.

Riding on! Riding on!

Auden stayed at Heidi's house but insisted that I went to the apartment. I eventually agreed after trying to change her mind for a couple of minutes. If something like that happened to me I would want to be alone too. I knew her and Heidi were probably crying over at their house and that there was nothing that I could do about it.

As much as I wanted to go see her, comfort, and hold her, I had caused her more grief than help in the past two days. I still didn't know how he died at all, nor did I ask. After Eric told me what happened he got a phone call and left due to what he called a 'family emergency'.

When Auden came back to me, she wrapped her arms around me. I assumed she thought I knew what happened. I wouldn't make it worse for her by asking her to repeat the events that happened. We sat on her hospital bed, with her in my lap while I whispered comforting words into her ear while she nodded in mild agreement.

The whole time this happened, I watched the window. I couldn't bear to see Auden so upset. In fact, the thought of it made me sick to my stomach. It was so blue outside. The sky was cloudless and bright and you could hear the beach roaring from miles away. It probably had children playing in it, happy to be there and not thinking of anything else at all.

Why hadn't the world stopped? If something this dramatic had happened why didn't the world split into two? Yet, people continued to pile into the small beach town, happy as could be, completely unaware of what was happening in my small little world.

Riding on! Riding on!

Now, I sat under the shade of a willow tree watching as people lowered the blue casket into the ground. Abe's casket was blue, but a much lighter blue than this seeing as he was a boy at the time and this was a much older man.

A priest stood at the foot of the grave, saying a few words to the people that had gathered. The small crowd consisted of Heidi and little Isby, completely unaware at the moment that her own father was gone. She would realize in a couple of years what happened and the full weight of it would come crashing down.

What I recognized to be a few of his closer friends from the funeral from two days ago had also shown up. Everyone was every solemn. The air was very still unlike it had been at the funeral. At the funeral people would cry out openly and no one cared, they often joined along. At the funeral people threw in an occasional 'Amen' after a particularly moving passage by the speaker. Not here.

Everything was quiet and still, like even the tiniest sound would crack everything, and make it shatter. I heard a thump as the casket reached its destination, its final resting place. Auden shuddered as it did.

She was tucked under my arm, snuggled close to me under the tree. She didn't want to be near her father as they put him in the ground, to his final resting place. She was very quiet the whole time I had seen her the past few days. I had to force her to eat even the smallest of meal and beg her to get any sleep, which usually meant me holding her and talking to her until she eventually woke up, which was usually by nightmares.

She hadn't slept before but this was different, she was actually scared to sleep now. Over the year we had gotten into a slow process of sleeping at normal hours but that was long forgotten. She begged me not to hold her at night when I would try to get her to sleep.

Now that she was away from the hospital, she almost never did anything. Her doctors gave me set instructions on how much she should be eating every day and how much exercise she should be getting and information about seeing a physical therapist. I had many failed attempts to do these things. She ate twice a day usually from me forcing her. The only time she got exercise was walking from the living room to the bathroom or the kitchen. She was completely withdrawn from everything that she did. She didn't look at me anymore, she stared straight ahead or down at the ground. She didn't look at anyone. A couple people came over to try to distract her, but generally ended up failing at the attempt.

The weather was beautiful. In fact if none of this had happened, Auden and I would probably be down at the beach with everyone all day playing kickball or something. The birds were singing louder than before and you could hear laughter up and down the streets wherever you went. But the world moved on, without Auden.

People began to pick up shovels; they were going to help bury him. Help to pack him into the ground. They were going to help him become part of the earth. He would no longer be the careful clean he always tried to be around me at least. Instead he would be deep in the ground, covered in dirt.

He would no longer be able to enjoy the sunshine that the warm summer brought, or the chill of the cool winter. It would always be cold where he was. He would no longer see the blooming of flowers in spring, or the bright autumn colors when leaves changed colors.

Auden was stiff as I got up. As much as I didn't want to leave her I needed to pay my respects to him. I picked up a shovel and got some dirt in it, dropping it onto the grave along with a few others, doing the same as me. I thought of the last time I saw him, I thought of the hatred that boiled in me whenever I thought of him. That hatred was now replaced with guilt, a guilt that brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. I don't know how long I shoveled. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing that much. Someone put a hand on the shovel, slowly pulling it from my grip. I didn't recognize the person, but I handed the shovel over. Glancing down at the hole it was halfway finished.

I returned to the tree where I was sitting before and by the looks of it, Auden hadn't moved an inch. She was tense as I pulled her to sit in my lap. Slowly, she relaxed some. It was enough for her to lay her head on my shoulder and she drew small circles on my chest.

"And even thought he will no longer be with us. He will remain in our hearts until the end of time. Amen," the priest finished, earning himself a quiet chorus of 'amens' amongst the few gathered. A couple of them left as soon as the priest was done speaking. Others stood for a few minutes to talk. Auden and I stayed under the tree.

"It's not your fault that he's gone." I whispered gently into her hair, which covered her face. She thought it was her fault. From what I had heard from different sources, Auden and her dad had gotten into a fight about me after I'd left. He wanted her to leave me and she said that she wouldn't no matter what he said or did. After a while she screamed at him to leave. When he did, no one had seen him for a couple of hours. That night they discovered his body in the park. He has blood alcohol levels four times the legal amount to drive and from the looks of it he had gotten into a rather rough bar fight, and gotten the wrong end of it.

"He left because of me," she whispered. This was probably the most I had heard from her in the past three or four days besides grunts and nods. I was confused on whether I should be excited that she was talking or disappointed on what she had actually said.

"Did you force the alcohol down his throat?" I asked her. When she didn't respond I nudged her lightly. "Hey," I whispered quietly. "Answer me, please."

"No..," she whispered looking down. She said nothing more but I could feel her quivering and trying to keep from crying again.

"Then it's not your fault." I said with a note of finality in my voice. She said nothing. I reached under her chin and pulled her face up to meet my eyes. After pushing the hair out of her face, I spoke quietly. "None of this is your fault."

"I made him leave." She yanked away her head from me and I pulled me hand down helplessly.

"Let's go home," I said quietly standing up and pulling her with me.

"I don't want to go home," she muttered and sat down on the grass again.

"Auden, you're not staying here for the rest of your life," I sighed kneeling down to her level.

"Maybe I want to." She was staring at his grave. "I won't leave him Eli," she choked out after an awful silence. She began crying again.

"Listen," I placed a hand on each of her shoulders. "You're dad loved you right?" She nodded at this. "So he would want you to take care of yourself especially after that crash. He was worried about you and I am, too. He would want you-" I paused. I was going to say 'with me' but I knew that he didn't. But she appeared to have stopped listening.

"Okay," she whispers. I smiled inwardly and reached down to take her hand. Her fingers entwined themselves in mine and I gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"I love you Auden," I said this after we passed his grave.

"I love you too, Eli," she whispered to me and I wrapped my arm around her waist to walk instead. I helped her into the car. As I turned to get into my own seat I looked back at the fresh grave. You could tell it was fresh with all the dirt on it. Soon it would be a uniform green like all the other graves, only to be remembered on special holidays or birthdays. I wouldn't forget.

He would never get to see his other daughter grow up, and he barely got to see this one. He wouldn't see his grandkids. He wouldn't see another Christmas, Halloween, New Year's, or Valentine's Day. He would remain in the ground; in his final resting place.

**Authors Note:**

**Do you hate it? Do you hate me? Please don't hate me. I can take it down, I could make it change. I thought this would be interesting turn on things and I could make the story go better. **

**Please, please, PLEASE comment. I took a big risk with this and I refuse to write anything else until I get review on this. Sigh..okay that's it I guess. I worked ridiculously hard to get this chapter right. I based a lot of it off my own experiences with my brother. **

**PM me, email me (), comment. Anything. Please..**


	16. Upidstay

**Alright. So something happened today that gave me the inspiration for this. It's just some fluff. Not some big major story line but I hope you enjoy it. And for all of you who have me on Story/Author Alert. Please comment, to make me happy? **

A couple of weeks had passed and I was in a full out mission to make Auden happy, whether she wanted to be or not. After staying with Heidi for a week she decided to come back to the apartment with me.

It was now mid August. The population of Colby was slowly dwindling back to its normal population as the tourists and vacationers had began to wander back to their homes, leaving the town in a rustled state. The temperature was no longer the warm humid heat of July, but the warm nicety of August.

"Hey Eli?" Auden called out to me from the kitchen. I was sprawled out on the couch stuffed with the blueberry pancakes we had just finished eating.

"Yes?" I drawled out slowly.

"Is there any milk left?"

"If it's not in there, then no we don't." I could hear her sigh dramatically.

"Can you go get some?" I groaned loudly, before grunting and standing up.

"You coming with me?" I asked nudging her towards the door after she rolled her eyes a bit. "C'mon. I bet we'll see Adam or Maggie or Leah, or some other people." She sighed to herself and got on her shoes.

Since the crash we've taken a liking to walking places rather than driving. Auden gets nervous and tense whenever she gets in a car and looks around like she's being followed. I was sure that in a couple of weeks or so she would eventually get back into the swing of things. To be honest, if I was in her situation I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a car either. So we walked everywhere; to the store, to the beach, and to the Last Chance Grill.

"What was that?" Auden stopped me mid-stride. We'd only been walking for a couple of minutes and the store was much farther away. When I looked at her, she was hunched over, looking towards a bush.

"I don't see anything, Aud." I turned to get a better look, but all I saw was a plain old bush.

"You didn't see it?" She took a few steps toward the bush, stepping lightly.

"Do you want to tell me what I'm looking for?" I asked taking equally quiet steps behind her.

"There was something in the bush," she said, walking up to the bush so she stood in front of it.

"I got that, but what?" As if the god's were watching me at that very second, the thing that Auden saw in the bush bolted out under me and ran past me towards the beach. It was small and white, or was it black?

"We have to get it," exclaimed Auden. She sprinted after it, while I stood dumbfounded for a moment. This was the most active I had seen her in a while, so I took off after her and the small thing she was chasing.

When she stopped suddenly, I ran into her. She stumbled, but I caught her by the arm to steady her. That's when I saw it. It was a small black and white cat perched up on a fallen tree. It must've been smaller than a year old. It was pretty dirty, so I thought it was a stray until I saw a bright pink color poke out from under its long fur.

"Stop," I tightened my grip on her arm when she took a step towards it. "You don't know where it's been."

"It's lost," she looked back at me with pleading eyes.

"It's a stray," I attempted to reason with her. She took another step towards it as much as my grip on her arm would allow her to.

"No it's not. Look," she pointed to it. "It has a collar on" She tugged her arm again, so I released it.

"You can't just go up to random animals. It could have a disease or something." She rolled her eyes and took a few steps towards it. I saw the cat shrink back a bit when she extended her hand out to it.

"It's too clean to be a stray. And besides it has a collar on, which means it belongs to someone." She looked back at me and I saw that familiar glow in her eyes, when she got excited about something. I knew I was going to give in once she gave me that look, since I hadn't seen it in over a month and a half now.

"Alright, let's get it." She smiled a genuine smile and looked back at the cat. It really was too clean to be an actual stray, but it wasn't clean either. I took a small step towards it and raised my hand out slowly. It didn't shrink back but it looked at me with its round blue eyes, its head cocked to one side. When I took a wrong step forward, I tripped on a pile of twigs on the ground, scaring it off. The area we were in now was clearing, but I didn't see where it went.

"Did you see where it went?" I turned to face Auden who shook her head at me.

"You go left, I'll go right," she said quickly, sprinting through the trees looking from side to side for a sign of the cat. I took a second to watch her, laughing as she ran. This was the most active I had seen her in the past few weeks since her father's death. She was making steady progress with her health, mental and physical. I would still have to remind her to go eat, or take her to see Heidi, or just hold her while she cried and I would whisper comforting words in her ear. I saw a flash of her hair before she bounded behind some trees.

I turned around to our agreed upon sides, and hurried towards the end of the clearing. I wandered around through a couple of trees for a moment before I saw a small flash of color. I spotted him a few feet away and chased him. I realize now that it wasn't the smartest thing to chase down something that is frightened to death by me.

The small patch of trees burst into a backyard of a blue house. It looked abandoned, since no lights were on and no cars were to be seen. It darted under the raised porch so I lay on the ground to try to spot it.

"Come out you stupid cat!" I muttered under my breath when I found him sitting peacefully under the step, a foot more than I could reach. I growled when he didn't move. I picked up a stick and threw it with full force into the small opening in a vain attempt of getting him to run out the other side. When I ducked my head under the step again I couldn't find the stick but the cat was sitting in the same spot it was before, completely unharmed.

"Get out from under there!" I scolded it. It looked like I spoke a completely different language to it, but rounded and hustled out the other side. I quickly scrambled up to follow him to the front of the house. He bounded under a bush in the front of the house, where I wouldn't be able to reach it without crawling through millions of small branches.

"Hey!" I shouted at it, and it looked up at me. "Upidstay!" I shouted at him when he turned his attention back the ground. It looked up at me again and I swear to God I saw it smiling at me. He made another break for it but for once I caught it by the scruff of its neck and held it out far in front of me. He squirmed around, trying to get out of my grasp.

"That's your name, by the way," I said to it annoyed. "Upidstay. It's pig-Latin for stupid little cat. It meowed at me as I tucked it under my arm and ventured back to the clearing.

Riding on! Riding on!

"Can you get the cat food off the table, please?" Auden asked me. She was petting the small little cat, who we now knew to be a girl and completely healthy thanks to the people at the humane society. It appears that no one knew who the cat belonged to despite the collar, which only had a small bell on it. They told us that they would take it to see if someone came back to get her if they were missing a cat.

I convinced them to let us keep her instead of having them take it. They refused at first, but I slowly convinced them that it would be a good idea. I may have exaggerated a few details on our heroic quest to rescue the cat.

"You know," I handed her the cat food. "We shouldn't get too attached to her. She could belong to someone." She merely shrugged off my comment and filled a bowl with cat food.

"Then we'll give her back," she sighed at me. She looked back at me with a small pout on her lips. "Can we at least give her a name?"

"Auden," I chided her gently. "If we give a name, you won't want to give her back when someone calls in for her.

"Pleeeaaaassse?" She crawled over to me, who was sitting on the other end of the kitchen floor and wrapped her arms around me. Auden was definitely enjoying the cat, and it was making her a lot happier. She had that same glow in her eyes that she had the summer previously. I smiled and gave in.

"What do you want to name it?" I asked her. She shrugged and I laughed. "If you don't have a name, why do you want to give it a name so badly?" She shrugged at me and cuddled against my chest. I kissed the top of her forehead.

"Someone's got to look out for it. It would be cold outside right now." Her eyes gleamed as she explained this to me.

"It's got long enough fur that it wouldn't get cold," I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me.

"Don't call her an 'it'. She needs someone to love her. Her mommy and daddy left her and so did her owners, the only people she was supposed to trust." She got quiet as she said this and buried her face into my chest. I could feel her blush a bit.

"We'll take care of her," I amended myself from saying it. "I promise." She looked up at me and smiled. I hooked her chin with a finger and felt our lips brush against each other. Our romance level was definitely down ever since the crash and this was the first kiss we had actually had in a couple of weeks.

She beamed at me and snuggled into my chest again as we both watched our new found pet eat on the opposite side of the room.

**Okay. So, no major plot turns, just a bit of fluff. I chased a cat around for like an hour today to find out that it was supposed to be running around because it belonged to one of the neighbors. It was completely white and really clean, but it didn't have a collar on so I didn't know any better. I named it Upidstay as well; which is pig latin for stupid in case you didn't know. Hah. **

**I know that I don't like waiting a long time for people to update so I try to do it as much as I can. By the way, I tend to update more when I get lots of comments. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Hehe. But anyways, thank you for taking the time to read. **

**I love you all despite how you feel about my story ;)**


	17. Lovesick

**Since in the stories it's getting close to the school year..I will have to end it soon. But I have a deal with you that you can see at the end of this chapter. Here we go. WARNING! This chapter might be considered to have a mature rating. **

I woke up to the smell of French toast making its way through the entire house. I smiled to myself; Auden was starting to eat again. She was getting better at taking care of herself more, but it was still lacking. I had to remind her or sometimes force her to eat, take some meds, or go outside.

I opened the door quietly, to see where she was and if it was safe to come out. Auden was standing in front of the counter spreading some butter on a piece of toast. There was some fruit on the table as well. I slowly made my way out of the house and wrapped my arms around her.

I felt her slightly tensed body ease into mine, and she leaned against me for suppose, but still continued preparing the food.

"What'cha doin'?" I asked quietly, rocking back and forth a bit.

"Making breakfast." She replied simply, putting the finished toast back onto the plate and rubbing one of her hands over my arm.

"Since when do you eat breakfast?" I teased. She laughed and shrugged at me.

"Since today?" she asked and turned around to face me.

"Hmm. Well that's good, then," I moved away from her to get a glass for me and Auden. I noticed the purple bag where she kept her medicine in was tucked back in the corner. When I took it out and looked at it I could tell that she hadn't been taking it for the past two days. The bottled of liquid were where they should've been two days ago, and some of the pill bottled were fuller than they should be. I stopped reminding her because she claimed that it annoyed her when I did.

"Auden," I called out to her. She turned and saw what I was holding, and when she did her shoulders slumped.

"Eli," she pleaded. I knew she didn't like having to take it, one because she had to four times a day, two there were so many that she had to take, and three some of them tasted badly and I knew it.

"You haven't been taking them." This was a statement. I knew she hadn't and I had the facts right here in my hands. She bit her lip, like I knew she did when she was nervous.

"I just forgot," she said a little too quickly to be the truth and turned back to the table.

"I reminded you every day up until recently," I walked over to her slowly.

"Eli, I just want to put this whole crash behind us. Okay?" She faced me and I could see her face was crimson with embarrassment of being caught and anger.

"I understand that but you need to get better." I hooked a finger under her chin and brought her eyes up to mine. She pouted at me. I put the bag in her hand and she huffed at me.

"I'll take it later," she muttered setting it down on the counter.

"Auden," I laughed. "I know you don't like it, but you still need to take it." I picked the bag up and set it in her hand. "Now." She pouted at me and shook her head.

"I'm getting better, you said so yourself." She was pouting at me and begging with her eyes. I know what you're thinking. It's just some meds. But Auden hated it. It reminded her every day of that hospital and how she was never able to anything for that long while.

"I know you are, and that is partially due to these," I reminded her pointing to the bag. I opened the bag and handed her the pills that she was supposed to take this morning. She grudgingly walked over to the counter and poured herself a glass of orange juice. I walked behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist for the second time today.

She popped one of the pills in her mouth and I kissed her cheek. When she took a second one I nibbled her ear a bit. She seemed to take this as encouragement because she was going faster as she took them and waiting in between them patiently when I would either kiss one of her cheeks, ears, or part of her neck.

The actual feeling of being able to touch her again brought me an unexplainable emotion. I felt like I could run a thousand miles and never stop. She was fully accepting what I was doing and wanted more of it. I pulled her closer into me when she was done and continued to kiss up and down her neck for a few minutes. I was surprised when she pulled away from me. She looked up at me with sparkling eyes.

"If you're so worried about my health, we should probably eat something before all my hard work gets cold," I smiled and nodded, taking my seat next to her and filling my plate with French toast and maple syrup. The warm gooey sweetness filled my mouth. Auden never showed too much interest with cooking before but when she did cook, she was quite good.

When we were done eating, Auden offered to clean up the dishes, despite my protests that I would do it. When she returned she practically jumped on me, who was sprawled out on the couch. I smiled up at her.

"What's got you so happy today?" I asked brushing a piece of hair behind her ear.

"You do," she kissed my forehead and I sat up, while she positioned herself to straddle my lap still facing me.

"What did I do?" I cupped her face in my hands and pressed my forehead against hers.

"You've been taking care of me all this time. And I love you for it" She brushed her lips against my ear in a way that made me shiver.

"Well I did it for you," I whispered into her hair. She was nibbling on my ear and it was driving me crazy. She slowly worked her way down my neck and tugged at the end of my shirt. She was still wearing some loose sweatpants and t-shirt from when she woke up. I was the same thing, only instead of the bright pinks and purples, a navy blue and green.

"I love you Eli," she turned to face me. Her eyes were shining as they looked directly into mine.

"I love you too," I replied, twirling a piece of her hair in my fingers.

"I love you more," she moved one of her hands up my chest, her eyes searching me to see if I minded. But what guy in their right mind would every stop a girl from doing that. She continued watching me as her hand went back down, stopping halfway down my chest. I let out a short laugh.

"I beg to differ, my dear." I put my hand on top of hers, since it stopped moving and pressed it onto me a bit more.

"How can you say that?" she whispered.

"Because I know it's true."

I put my hands around the back of her neck and pulled her into me, my mouth above hers, kissing each other. It was slow as I took the time to memorize her reaction to everything that I did. Her lips were still sweet from the maple syrup that she had, making it even more enjoyable than it was already.

Her mouth parted slightly to take a breath and I took the opportunity to catch her bottom lip in my mouth. I sucked on it and scraped it a bit with my teeth. She whispered my name and pushed herself against me even more. Her hands went from my chest to around my neck, same as I was doing to her, and she pulled me closer.

The kisses were becoming quicker and deeper as she tilted her head back. One of my hands remained pressed against her neck keeping her as close to me as possible while the other went down to the curve of her hip. I began to knead at the flesh of her hip noting the different responses that I would receive with every move of my hand. She pulled away from me breathlessly, taking a short look into my eyes.

I opened my mouth to say something to her but she immediately tugged me in, making me gasp a bit. Her tongue worked her way into my mouth immediately at the openness of it all so I did the same with her. My hand went to the bottom of her shirt and I opened my eyes. Her eyes were closed as she pressed herself into me even more.

I took this as a yes and my hands went under her shirt to her hip. The warmness of her body was overwhelming. She moaned a bit when I squeezed one of her hips causing my blood to run hotter. Both of my hands were under her shirt now and I pushed it up a bit, waiting in case she didn't like it or pushed me away.

What she did instead was throw her hands down from my neck to the bottom of my shirt lifting it up to fit both of her hands inside. Her hands were no longer needed to keep our bodies together. Our mouths were in a fierce battle to claim the other's pushing against each other fervently.

My hands were starting to move their way up from her hips along her spine. Her back was completely bare. The fact that she was wearing nothing underneath the shirt caused an energetic jolt to surge through my body like nothing ever had before.

"That doesn't prove it you know," she muttered when I pulled away from her mouth and began running kisses up and down her neck.

"Prove what?" I said before stopping to suck a small part of her neck at her collarbone.

"That you love me more," she said pushing her body up to meet mine. I smirked at this comment and worked my way up to her ear and started to nibble on it lightly. My hands moved around to her tummy and hovered above it.

"But I do," I smiled pulled back.

"No you don't," she said between rushed passionate kisses. "I do." With that she pushed me down onto the couch so that she was on top of me and brought her mouth to mine again. I kissed her back, my hands now pressed fully against her stomach. One of her hands was still roaming my chest while the other rested on my knee.

Knots appeared in my stomach when she started to move up my thigh resting on the waistband of my sweatpants. She lingered there momentarily before trailing down my leg to my knee slowly, causing me to moan into her mouth and press up against hers.

"I still think that's a load of crap," I muttered. She pulled back from me confused. I took the opportunity to push her back onto the couch so I was now on top of her.

"What is?" she was panting, with cheeks flushed.

"I still love you more," I stated. She grabbed me furiously and began to kiss me again. She had no idea what she did to me. When she did this my hands moved up from her stomach and brushed against a bare breast. I heard her moan and her hips thrust forwards a bit.

I groaned and pushed towards her. Her hands moved to my shirt and she tugged at it, pulling it up slowly, revealing more and more of my chest as she did. I pulled back from her long enough for her to pull it up over and my head and pull her back against me. My hands had pretty much stopped, since I didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

"Eli," she panted out pulling away from me.

"Hmm?" Her body was growing warmer and her breaths were getting raged.

"I need you," she whispered, blushing the reddest I had ever seen her before. She reached down to the waistband of her own sweatpants before I realized what she meant. I love Auden to death, but if she didn't want to do anything than neither did I.

"Auden," I stammered out, unsure of what to say. She slipped them off revealing a pair of cotton panties that she was wearing underneath. When she glanced at me I could see the fear in her eyes. Fearful that I would push away like others in her life had. That's when I knew that I was going to be with her forever and always.

I brought her in for another kiss; slow and sweet before becoming desperate feverish and quick, with jagged breaths in between them. Our hips were crashing against each other desperately and I reached down instinctively, squeezing her thigh in my hand, slowly working my way up taking note to every reaction that I got, retreating a bit at any sign that she was getting uncomfortable.

"I love you Auden," I whispered, pulling back from her for the last time that night.

"I love you to Eli," I gazed her body hungrily making each moment last as long as possible in my head and trying to memorize every curve. When I looked up at her she looked straight into my eyes.

"Auden," I whispered. It was all I could manage.

"Yes," she said. Answering the lingering question and I leaned in for a kiss.

**Author's Note!**

**Yeah…I went for it. If you don't like, sorry, but I thought it would be good and I thinks its okay. I will make a deal with you guys. I have 17 people on Story alert and I get a spike in views to my story whenever I post more than 17. So! Here we go..**

**5 comments: I will post the next chapter on Friday (I'm planning on posting a chapter for this story every two-three weeks from now on)**

**10 comments: I will post a chapter every Friday for 4 weeks. **

**I know this is a long shot but I will go for it. **

**15 comments: Mini-marathon. Will post a chapter every day for 5 days next week as well as four Fridays after that. **

**I myself don't think that I'll get anywhere near these numbers but if I do I will do the promised thing. I want to hear from you so..if that means bribing I will go for it. Oh also, I have a poll on my profile, so if you are interested enough in my writing I want to start a new story based on votes. So please check that out. **

**Love you guys XOXO **


	18. Again?

"Pencils are this way," called out Auden. I was zipping up and down the aisles on top of the cart while Auden pushed school supplies in and out of the cart.

"Who says we need pencils?" I said pushing the car toward where she was calling. She rolled her eyes and threw me an exasperated glance.

"I do, and so do your teachers," she chided.

"I believe last year they said we could have black or blue pens," I pointed out to her.

"And if you remember last year you had to cross out half of your stuff because it was wrong or you needed to fix it," she said with a smirk teasing the corner of her mouth.

"Can't we do this later?" I sighed and pouted at her causing her to burst out in laughter.

"No, we only have a couple of weeks left, we'll need to pack up soon anyways."

"I don't want to leave," I mumbled under my breath. I know it sounded a little bratty but it was true. This was one of the best and worst summers I've ever had, but I like to think of the good parts.

"Neither do I," she muttered.

"So…let's stay here," I said as though it were the final word on the matter.

"You know as well as I do that we can't do that," she replied, with disappointment in her voice. She dumped a couple of packs of mechanical and regular pencils in to our already mostly full shopping cart. The store was filled with parents and kids shopping for school.

"Sure we can. Don't those rich European kids take like two years off before they go to college or something," I said picking up an accordion folder and pretending to look at it for quality.

"Well we are neither rich, nor European," she said leaning in to put a kiss on my cheek. Instead I lifted a hand to block it. She pulled back confused.

"I'm serious Auden, maybe we should take a year off, what with everything going on. It might just be better," I shrugged and set the folder back down not turning to meet her gaze, but I could tell that she was looking at me intently.

"I thought you wanted to go to college," she said slowly, scanning a row of notebooks.

"I do," I sighed softly. "But I want a break."

"We've only been at it a year."

"I know! Okay!" I yelled, causing several people in the aisle to look at me. This was when I decided to look at Auden. She just gripped a notebook tightly looking at me like I just murdered someone. "Auden," I shook my head making my voice quieter. She just shook her head and set the notebook back where it was supposed to be. She walked out of the aisle purposefully hair bouncing behind her.

I groaned loudly gaining the attention of a couple of school kids who were arguing over which crayons were better.

"What are you looking at," I snapped at them.

"Nothin," said the littlest one. He had sandy hair and so did the other kid. I assumed that they were brothers.

"Then get," I shouted pointing towards some random section of the store. The kids looked at each other hesitantly than ran towards the direction I pointed. I stalked out the aisle to go find Auden noticing the glares I was receiving from many of the moms that were around the area.

I finally found her searching through a stack of magazines near the book section of the store. I don't know why, but it just made me angry. All the anger of the past few weeks just built up inside of me and started bubbling over. My vision was white with fury and I clenched my fists tightly. How dare she just leave when we were trying to talk about an important subject? I felt a low growl in my throat. I didn't know where the anger came from. I was just fine a day ago, and now this.

I stalked over to her and snatched the magazine out of her hand and threw it on the rack causing her to look up at me with an air of annoyance about her.

"What the hell was that for?" She stood up strait but was still a few inches shorter than I was.

"Why did you walk away from me?" I could tell that a few heads were turning in our general direction.

"Because you were being unreasonable," she said looking straight into my eyes.

"And you weren't?"

"You're asking me to quit college, Eli. Something I've been working for, for years."

"I'm not asking you to quit!" I said exasperated.

"Then what are you asking me to do?" She folded her arms over her chest and her face was red with anger.

"I told you, I just want a break."

"We haven't even done anything."

"Haven't done anything! We barely talk to each other all year then we come back to this place to get back together, succeed in doing so, then you get into a car crash, get into a hospital for a couple of weeks, your dad dies after arguing with me and you cal that nothing at all?" Her lip started to tremble and I immediately regretted yelling at her.

"That's why I want to go back."

"Why?"

"To get away from all of this," she said making motions all around her head as though she were trapped.

"We can do that somewhere else besides school," I pointed out.

"Like where? We have no money and no place to live besides the apartment and the dorm."

"I don't know. We can figure something out. We can talk to my mom."

"She's not just going to hand us all the money that we need to leave," she pointed out.

"She might," I sighed knowing that she was probably right but I was still clinging onto the small hope that we might be able to get what we needed from her.

"I don't just want to end up owing her all this money."

"Auden I'm not going back to that school." I felt the rage starting to build up again.

"Why not?" She was yelling now and I could tell that several people had started to gather to find out what was going on. I sighed losing all of my patience. I wanted this off my chest so I just grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her lightly for a few seconds before speaking.

"I'm not losing you again!" She looked directly into my eyes, mouth hanging open. I saw a few tears collecting in her eyes so I let go of her, unsure of what to do next.

We both stood just looking at each other for a couple of minutes, most of the crowd receding by the time I had grabbed her wrist and led her out of the store, ignoring the forgotten cart of school supplies.

She climbed slowly into the passenger seat when I opened the door for her to get in and I got into the driver's seat. There was a deafening silence as we rode back to the apartment.

"Eli," she whispered. I looked at her.

"Yes?"

"Yes," she stated, rather matter of factly.

"Yes?"

"Yes," she repeated.

"Yes, what?" I glanced at her but she looked completely calm.

"I want to take a break," she said. I gripped the steering wheel tightly unsure of if she meant what I meant.

"You do?"

"Yeah, and I know just what to do on it."

**Author's Note time:**

**I'm so sorry. I've been neglecting this story so much. I've been really into my other ones and I forgot about this one sorta kinda. So I have bad news. This is probably the last chapter of the story. 90 percent chance it is. **

**Which is why I ended it like this I have an important question that ALL OF YOU! Need to answer. **

**Do I continue? Different plot and all but same characters, same story line. I'll make it if enough people are into it. If not. I will make an amazingly awesome last chapter and then poof…the end. **


	19. Happily Ever AftersOr Not

**Warning! Spoiler alerts to the ends of some stories. In particular Hunger Games, Titanic, Gone with the Wind, and Romeo and Juliet. So if you don't want to know what happens skip over that stuff but I'm pretty sure most of us know what happens. **

"Are you going to tell me anything?" I laughed following her inside the house. The cat jumped up on the couch and nudged my hand so I began to scratch behind her ear. We decided to name her Bella for now, though I wasn't exactly sure why.

"Well to be honest I don't really know," she said leaning against one of the walls in the living room.

"You said you did," I said with eyes full of amusement.

"Well I was thinking of the details then," she said waving her hand dismissively.

"Like?" I said with a small smirk.

"You'll figure that out later," she said shyly looking at me through her eyelashes. She was blushing a bit and I couldn't help but to smile. She was adorable when she blushed even though she didn't think so and I know she hated that hot feeling in her face.

"Are you serious about this?" I asked her. As much as I liked the random change in action I didn't want her to do this just for me. She's been dreaming of college since she was a little girl and if I was the one to stop her I wouldn't be able to live with it. But then the devil on my shoulder told me about all the fun things I would be able to do with Auden once we actually were out and about. But the question was still where. I mean none of us really had a great big amount of money just hanging around waiting to be spent. We actually had to work for it and save all of it up just to use on small daily things.

"About what?" she asked tilting her head to the side a bit. Some of her hair fell into her face and she tucked it behind her ear revealing that she was blushing even more than I thought she was.

"Us," I said motioning to her and then to myself. "Doing this." She smiled at me.

"Yes. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked genuinely curious. I just stood there with my mouth halfway open like some stupid oaf until I finally found some words to say.

"Well," I said rubbing the back of my head. "You've been dreaming about college forever and I don't want to get in the way of that." That sounded good right? Not too selfish but not too pathetic. She sighed a bit and hung her head almost like she had given up. She lifted it up and walked towards me and leaned against me. I wrapped my arms around her and smiled.

"I would say something but it would be just awful," she mused shaking her head a bit.

"What do you mean?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"I mean it would be like all those romance movies that we sit and make fun of because of the poor acting and overly cheesy lines," she said.

"Well in that case I definitely want to hear it," I said matter-of-factly.

"Why? So you can sit and make fun of me all day?" she laughed.

"No because I want to hear you claim your undying love to me," I said sticking out my tongue in a childish way. She rolled her eyes at me and sighed.

"Because no matter what education I get I know that I would have a more happy living life with you than in some dirty old dorm room studying an endless amount of hours trying to maintain my grades," she breathed out. I smiled and pulled her a little closer to me.

"Ditto," I said simply. She glared at me but I knew that it was fake, there was a twinkle in her eyes that told me that she wasn't actually mad.

"I just poured out my heart to you and that's all you have to say is 'ditto'?" she scoffed.

"Oh, sorry," I said smacking my forehead. "We're doing the whole cheesy movie thing aren't we?" She just rolled her eyes at me. I backed up from her and got down on my knee taking her hand in mine.

"Auden," I said in the most exaggerated old English accent I could manage trying to remember something that would've been in a Shakespeare play or something. "Every day I get up only to see your smiling face. You are my everything and I would be lost in a pitiful world of mortals without you," I said putting a hand over my heart and smiled even wider when I laugh escaped her lips.

"Well said, Romeo," she teased.

"Does that make you Juliet?" I asked still not getting off.

"Doesn't that mean we both end up dying?" said Auden recalling an old English class from high school.

"Damn," I muttered looking down. "What about that one movie with the ship?"

"Titanic?" she said still laughing.

"Yea that one," I said standing up and setting her on top of a nearby chair and standing up on it a bit myself holding her arms out like I saw in the movie.

"I'll never let go, Jack," she mocked leaning her head back dramatically.

"And I'm the king of the world!" I said yelling before leaping off the chair to the ground.

"I'm glad you feel that way because you freeze to death in this movie," she said in as serious a tone as she could manage.

"What! We both die in this one, too?" I said throwing my hands up in the air.

"No, you float me on a boat and I end up marrying someone else while still remaining faithful to the person who saved me that fateful night on the Titanic," she said flopping down to on the couch with her hands on her heart.

"I don't want you to marry anyone else," I grumbled.

"And I don't want you to die," she retorted.

"Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn," I said remembering the first line that popped into my mind from the only romantic film I could remember at the time.

"That's no way to speak, Rhett," said Auden playing along to the little game that we had going on.

"Well I have to catch you before you go off and marry another man for your own personal gain," I said holding my head high in the most sophisticated voice I could muster.

"Well my dear," she said sitting up. "You realize you don't love me anymore and leave me after our daughter dies removing the only ties we had to each other."

"Do any of these books end happy?"

"Snow White?" she suggested.

"Too many apples," I said plopping down next to her.

"Sleeping beauty?"

"Then I have to go find a dragon to kill." She chuckled a bit and leaned against me.

"Cinderella?"

"We have to save up for a trip, not some glass slippers," I reminded her.

"The Little Mermaid?" she said rolling her eyes.

"Too fishy."

"Too fishy?" she said sitting up to look at me.

"What? I just don't like fish."

"You're impossible," she said.

"Beauty and the beast!" I said snapping my fingers.

"Which one of us is which?" she asked.

"You obviously are the beautiful Belle while I am the raggedy old beast locked away in the castle with no chance of ever finding true love again," I explained to her.

"You're no beast," she said running a hand in my hair.

"I dunno, I think I could pull off a lion," I said leaning into her hand a bit.

"The Lion King?"

"Too Disney-y"

"Well I don't know what we're supposed to be then if you can't even pick a simple love story.

"Speaking of lions what about that one Gryffindor kid. Ron, I think?" I said trying to remember to the best of my knowledge the books that I was obsessed with at age ten.

"So I'm the brainy nerd while you're the shy guy hiding behind his famous friend waiting until needed to show your true feelings and bravery?" she asked starting to play with my hair and I smiled.

"I think that'll work," I said satisfied.

"But you're not a ginger," she said curtly.

"Someone's picky," I smirked up at her.

"Well you don't have dark enough hair to be Snape either," she sighed dramatically.

"I could dye my hair," I said closing my eyes.

"No," she said firmly ruffling my hair a little bit for emphasis. "I love your hair just the way it is."

"What about that one vampire guy?"

"Don't even go there," she muttered and I laughed knowing that I wasn't actually thinking of considering that.

"What about that book you read on the plane that you were telling me about?

"Hunger Games?" she asked.

"Yea that one. Didn't you say that they end up together."

"Yes, after a huge number of events that could've ended up easily killing us both and now the capital wants us dead."

"Let's do it!" I said with fake enthusiasm.

"You're not doing anything that you have a 1/24 chance of coming out alive," she stated and I could tell by the seriousness in her voice that she meant it with every ounce of her being.

"Same to you, my dear," I smiled and opened my eyes. She was looking at me as I did.

"So what are we going to do?" she asked in a barely audible whisper.

"I was hoping that you'd be the one to tell me that," I whispered back.

"Why do I always need to come up with the ideas around here?" she retorted still maintaining that low whisper that we kept throughout the entire conversation.

"Because you're the smart one," I answered.

"I think maybe you should come up with something," she said leaning her forehead against mine. The closeness made me suck in a quick breath and I saw her biting a lip in anticipation to what I was going to say next.

"I think," I drawled out slowly, "that we should come up with our own story." She smiled and I did to. I brought her lips to mine gently and she kissed me back sweetly.

"And how should ours end?" she asked when we pulled back a few seconds later.

"I can't tell you that," I admitted.

"How come?" she questioned.

"Because it hasn't been finished yet," I said simply. She blushed at me and we stared at each other for a few moments.

"I think this is the part of the movie where we kiss," she breathed. And with that I leaned into her and kissed her pulling her as close to me as I could and enjoying the bittersweet moment of the end of our summer together.

**Author's Note: (And a super long one at that)**

**So, this isn't the last chapter yet. One more for sure, then I may start a sequel. Ha. A sequel to the sequel. What do you guys think? I have 30 of you guys on alert and I KNOW you guys read it. So I need some help from you if I am to continue. We can make this a contest if you wish. In the comments if you would like to tell me how much you hate me for forcing you to wait for this could you also put your desired:**

**Location for sequel:**

**How they get there:**

**What they do there:**

**Any major catastrophes:**

**Any old characters coming back:**

**And any new characters:**

**So if you care to read the rest of this author's note I'll explain to you. I seriously just can't write anymore. I try and then I sit at the computer for 2 hours and get maybe a paragraph written. But if I get some ideas that I enjoy I think that I would be able to write a good amount. I'm soooo sorry for making you guys wait so long. I hate it when authors do that and I know you guys probably got fed up with me. But yea, as I was rereading I realized that my stories aren't that good and I'm not exactly sure why you guys like them. I mean theyre not terrible but I've read some pretty awesome stuff before and mine is sorta 'meh'. But with you in mind I forced myself to sit here. For those of you read my other stories I'm going to force myself to update those as well. And for those of you who haven't read them, go check them out please. So yea…I think that's it. And I know I don't deserve too many reviews for making you guys wait but…they may help me a lot.**

**You guys know where the review button is. You can be brutally honest and rant at me if you like or just pm with me. I always respond back and we can come up with some ideas together. The sad part is it took me 3 hours to write the chapter and 5 minutes to write this author's note which is already really long… I'll leave it to you guys then. Please please please please please, I need feedback people, I'm going insane here. Kay, love you guys.**


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